Icecap 660 and NO florescents

[Ophidia]

I just hooked up my Icecap 660 to two NO 36" bulbs. I noticed that they are running at least twice as bright as they were off of the Coralife electronic (?-- each one is twice as heavy as icecap) ballasts. This is cool.
Anyway, I do not have the VHO bulbs for it yet and one of the coralife ballasts has to go to it's new home. I was wondering if there would be any problems running the two NO bulbs off of the ballast-- since it is designed to run a variety of outputs and lengths at once I don't think it should be a problem. I did notice in my TFP catalog that it say "140 to 480 watts." Of course, that would not be the first incorrect thing in that catalog and it says nothing about it in the manual that came with the ballast.
The ballast is correctly wired. I noticed that the actinic bulb gets hotter than it did, though the 10000k is about the same.
ANy comments?

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http://members.xoom.com/ophidia1/

[Doug1]

Thats the beauty of the IceCap ballast you can run just about anything but MH. Your NO will be OK a little warmer but no problem. I use 2 IC 430 ballasts and had no problem with NO bulbs, you can even run PC by changing endcaps

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I reefed,so I spent,it would have been cheaper to do it right the first time.........Doug@thereeftank
moderator in exile

[DougL]

Ophidia;

To add to what Doug said, It will run your tubes at VHO levels. You should expect VHO heat from the tubes, and VHO
outputs.
Since the heaters don't run, the tubes won't be as hot as VHO on Tar, But they will have about double the current, plus
whatever extra efficiency Electronic operation confer.

So you have a rated output of 190 W (95 * 2)
and are probably using about 120W (60 per)
of real power.

Enjoy;

DougL



[This message has been edited by DougL (edited 01-05-2000).]

[Canadian]

Can you run NO bulbs on a VHO Tar ballast or can it only be done on an IceCap Ballast or other electronic ballast?

TIA,

Canadian

[Doug1]

Hi Canadian, its my understanding from several sources that the electronic ballast starts the bulb differently(soft start as it were) than the tar ballast which zaps the tube with start up voltage. Bottom line every thing I've read says dont do NO on a tar ballast, at the very least they willl burn out quickly, and possibly burst :(

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I reefed,so I spent,it would have been cheaper to do it right the first time.........Doug@thereeftank
moderator in exile

[Ophidia]

Thanks guys
DougL-- so these NO bulbs are doing the same output as VHO bulbs? Does this mean there would be no advantage to switching to VHO bulbs?
Doug1-- thanks for the reassurance :)
Chris

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My webpage
http://members.xoom.com/ophidia1/

[DougL]

Ophidia;

If I believe my light meter, the VHO tubes are about 10% to 20% brighter. That's comparing a 48" Daylight Ultra vs a URI
Actinic White VHO.

Now, the Chroma 75 was about 50% of these others, but it was bluer, so my light meter may not be as sensitive.

If you are buying URI, the VHO is only a couple of bucks extra and is worth it.
If you want to run HD tubes, go for the NO.

If it were mine, I would run your NO's and see what you think. They should last well in this setup, because the filament is one
of the factors that degrade a tube, and it isn't operated in this design.

Hope this helps;

DougL



[This message has been edited by DougL (edited 01-05-2000).]

[Doug1]

I don't know whats out there in 36" tubes but GE and Sylvania both make an ultra daylight 6500K flo bulb thats around $5 that are very popular, used with Icecaps these work well and are cheap enough to change out at 6 months. Might be worth lookin into for you

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I reefed,so I spent,it would have been cheaper to do it right the first time.........Doug@thereeftank
moderator in exile

[Ophidia]

Thanks DougL
I'll see how it goes with the NO tubes at least until they need replacing.
My xenia has started pulsing already! :cool:
Chris

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My webpage http://members.xoom.com/ophidia1/

[This message has been edited by Ophidia (edited 01-02-2000).]