How to Gut a light?

[NemusMaximus]

I have an old 2x 65w Power Compact fixture I wanted to gut, and retro into a small hood for a 5.5 gallon tank. My question is, can I use the ballast to power 2 or 3 18watt bulbs? Will that overdrive them or worse- not work at all? Any help is appreciated....


Thanks

[troylee]

depends on the ballast most of them have a diagram on them to tell you what they will run such as in multiple bulbs....

[NemusMaximus]

Oh really? Cool. I'll take the light apart tonight and look. Maybe post some pics. I took the electrical section of physics in college, but chances are I wont remember anything truly useful......so I might still need help haha.

[uncleof6]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14594500#post14594500 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by NemusMaximus
I have an old 2x 65w Power Compact fixture I wanted to gut, and retro into a small hood for a 5.5 gallon tank. My question is, can I use the ballast to power 2 or 3 18watt bulbs? Will that overdrive them or worse- not work at all? Any help is appreciated....


Thanks

I gutted a name brand fixture once, and was quite dismayed with what I found. Now granted, the fixture was not a "high end" fixture, the brand used to be high end) however the name has been in the industry for a very long time. I found non application specific ballasts, splices in which no provision for moisture proofing was even attempted. Very discouraging. But hey, this is DIY isn't it? As with most things, you are very much ahead using "application specific" ballasts. The only production ballast,(I am aware of) that is designed to overdrive lamps, is the IceCap (430 and 660.) I hear that a workhorse ballast when wired a certain way, will overdrive lamps, but I have never tried this nor would I (I could even be wrong with this hearing... I am senile)

A number of ballasts are listed to run different combinations of lamps, even different types of lamps. Check the lable on the ballast, if it states the combination you want to use, then go with it, if it does not, (or does not have a lable) DIY it into "file 13" and get the correct application specific ballast.

HTH,

Regards,

Jim

[coralnut99]

As mentioned it depends on the ballast. If it's a workhorse, there's information on the website, wiring diagrams too I believe
www.fulham.com I believe.

[uncleof6]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14595495#post14595495 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by coralnut99
As mentioned it depends on the ballast. If it's a workhorse, there's information on the website, wiring diagrams too I believe
www.fulham.com I believe.

The workhorse ballast is the one I referred to in the first part of my post. (non-application specific in my case as in T5/HO, due to the starting characteristics of T5/HO lamps, even though the label lists them) Further dismaying, by the fact that workhorse ballasts are not reliable, from direct experience, in many different applications.

One thing I noticed with the fullham wiring diagrams is: in the fine print, it states starting aid required, in some cases, however the wiring diagram shows no such addition. Also see a lot of questions on wiring them up, i.e. problems. Interesting. Or maybe it is just more people buy these due to low price.

Any way, OP, what do you have there?

Regards,

Jim