How To: Upgrade your 40w T5 UV Sterilizer to 75w.

tkeracer619 · 06/21/2019, 01:18 AM

Hey everyone, I've been really busy lately so haven't had much opportunity to hang out online but I just upgraded my 40w sterilizer to a 75w unit and thought some of you would enjoy/benefit from this.

My UV is an Emperor Aquatics (Pentair) 40w Smart UV but this should work on all T5 based 40w UV sterilizers.

Long story short but my sterilizer was burning though bulbs every 6 months, after the 3rd bulb (pentair) I got frustrated and contacted the manufacturer. I assumed at this point the ballast had gone bad and had hoped they would warranty out the bulb if I bought a new ballast. Nope, no warranty past 3 months

. They would however gladly sell me a new ballast. I declined having already spent $204 on their lamps in 1.5 years. Burned bulb on right, new on left.

This is where it gets interesting, I decided to cut the ballast apart so I could just get a replacement. To my surprise... Workhorse 22... Not spec for any T5, certainly not a UV bulb, and with a pf of .8 was actually driving the bulb at 33w. Lame... my quest on finding a quality source of UV supplies was on. (To be fair, my unit is old, and they have moved on from that ballast)

I decided to go with Philips Lighting. They are well regarded in the UV industry, have long life, have spec ballasts, and publish bulb degradation data. The bulbs are also cheaper. Interestingly enough they have a high output 75w version of the bulb size most of our 40w setups use.

Here are the components I went with. Total was $150, less than a new ballast and bulb from Pentair or AquaUV

Bulb: Philips TUV 36T5 HO 4P SE UNP (bulbconnection.com $22ea)
Ballast: Philips Advance Purevolt IUV-2S60-M4-LD Germicidal Ballast (Ebay $80)
Cord: 05-0191A2 Lamp Socket: 4 Pin w/2 meter Leads (Atlantic Ultraviolet $17)
Enclosure: 200x106x55mm Aluminum DIY Project Box Enclosure Case (Ebay $15)
Strain Reliefs: Big Bag of Cable Glands (Amazon $10)
Misc Hardware: Screws and Hangers (Ace $6)

First Step: Mount the new ballast and hangers to the aluminum enclosure. Shift the ballast up towards one side to leave room for the cables.

Mount the end plates, mark the locations for the cable glands, and install one cable gland into each end plate.

tkeracer619 · 06/21/2019, 01:18 AM

My original lamp cord/plug was only a 2 wire cable. This ballast needs a 4 wire. If you have a 4 wire you won't need to replace it with a new one.

Thread the lamp cord through the sterilizer end cap cable gland, through the new enclosure gland, and insert the conductors into the proper location on the ballast. Mount the end plate, route the cord, and tighten the cable gland.

Do the same with the Power Cord.

Finish assembling the enclosure.

That's it! Don't forget to increase your water flow! Also, if you happen to have a unit that uses two 40w t5 bulbs, this ballast will drive two of these 75w bulbs to spec so you could upgrade your 80w unit to a 150w unit.

One thing to note, it seems that a lot of companies will use these Philips part numbers as reference numbers. MAKE SURE you are getting authentic Philips, not some random equivalent.

Big E · 06/22/2019, 04:28 AM

Nice work!

moondoggy4 · 06/24/2019, 07:25 PM

So you dared to look behind the curtain. Congrats. Great tips. Very helpful.

LQT · 06/25/2019, 03:40 PM

Love the tinkering skills!

tkeracer619 · 07/03/2019, 11:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big E

Nice work!

Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by moondoggy4

So you dared to look behind the curtain. Congrats. Great tips. Very helpful.

Looking behind the curtain is my MO

Hope others can benefit from it. So far so good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LQT

Love the tinkering skills!

Thanks

moondoggy4 · 07/06/2019, 03:09 PM

Now I need to find one of these UV lights on the cheap so that I can do the mod, I will be getting a 270 gallon tank soon enough, so this should work nicely.

Fishbulb2 · 07/06/2019, 07:53 PM

Very well done. Looks clean.

tkeracer619 · 07/10/2019, 10:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by moondoggy4

Now I need to find one of these UV lights on the cheap so that I can do the mod, I will be getting a 270 gallon tank soon enough, so this should work nicely.

Yeah, I thought the same thing

I am sure some Chinese company makes them on the cheap where you could swap the guts and get good results. So far I've had no issues. Ballast runs cool to the touch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fishbulb2

Very well done. Looks clean.

Thanks, I thought it came together nicely.

green1181 · 03/05/2020, 05:50 PM

I just purchased the same used Pentair 40w and looks like it needs a ballast. How is this going long-term? Thinking of doing the same thing but
can't find a Phillips ballast here in Oz. Think this would work??

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3265...21eLp5HQ0&mp=1

06/21/2019, 01:18 AM	#1
tkeracer619 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Westminster, CO Posts: 17,289	How To: Upgrade your 40w T5 UV Sterilizer to 75w. Hey everyone, I've been really busy lately so haven't had much opportunity to hang out online but I just upgraded my 40w sterilizer to a 75w unit and thought some of you would enjoy/benefit from this. My UV is an Emperor Aquatics (Pentair) 40w Smart UV but this should work on all T5 based 40w UV sterilizers. Long story short but my sterilizer was burning though bulbs every 6 months, after the 3rd bulb (pentair) I got frustrated and contacted the manufacturer. I assumed at this point the ballast had gone bad and had hoped they would warranty out the bulb if I bought a new ballast. Nope, no warranty past 3 months . They would however gladly sell me a new ballast. I declined having already spent $204 on their lamps in 1.5 years. Burned bulb on right, new on left. This is where it gets interesting, I decided to cut the ballast apart so I could just get a replacement. To my surprise... Workhorse 22... Not spec for any T5, certainly not a UV bulb, and with a pf of .8 was actually driving the bulb at 33w. Lame... my quest on finding a quality source of UV supplies was on. (To be fair, my unit is old, and they have moved on from that ballast) I decided to go with Philips Lighting. They are well regarded in the UV industry, have long life, have spec ballasts, and publish bulb degradation data. The bulbs are also cheaper. Interestingly enough they have a high output 75w version of the bulb size most of our 40w setups use. Here are the components I went with. Total was $150, less than a new ballast and bulb from Pentair or AquaUV Bulb: Philips TUV 36T5 HO 4P SE UNP (bulbconnection.com $22ea) Ballast: Philips Advance Purevolt IUV-2S60-M4-LD Germicidal Ballast (Ebay $80) Cord: 05-0191A2 Lamp Socket: 4 Pin w/2 meter Leads (Atlantic Ultraviolet $17) Enclosure: 200x106x55mm Aluminum DIY Project Box Enclosure Case (Ebay $15) Strain Reliefs: Big Bag of Cable Glands (Amazon $10) Misc Hardware: Screws and Hangers (Ace $6) First Step: Mount the new ballast and hangers to the aluminum enclosure. Shift the ballast up towards one side to leave room for the cables. Mount the end plates, mark the locations for the cable glands, and install one cable gland into each end plate. __________________ Hobby Experience: 9200ish gallons, 26 skimmers, and a handful of Kent Scrapers. Current Tank: Vortech Powered 600G SPS Tank w/ 100gal frag tank & 100g Sump. RK2-RK10 Skimmer. ReefAngel. Radium 20k. Last edited by tkeracer619; 06/21/2019 at 01:26 AM.

06/21/2019, 01:18 AM	#2
tkeracer619 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Westminster, CO Posts: 17,289	Continued... My original lamp cord/plug was only a 2 wire cable. This ballast needs a 4 wire. If you have a 4 wire you won't need to replace it with a new one. Thread the lamp cord through the sterilizer end cap cable gland, through the new enclosure gland, and insert the conductors into the proper location on the ballast. Mount the end plate, route the cord, and tighten the cable gland. Do the same with the Power Cord. Finish assembling the enclosure. That's it! Don't forget to increase your water flow! Also, if you happen to have a unit that uses two 40w t5 bulbs, this ballast will drive two of these 75w bulbs to spec so you could upgrade your 80w unit to a 150w unit. One thing to note, it seems that a lot of companies will use these Philips part numbers as reference numbers. MAKE SURE you are getting authentic Philips, not some random equivalent. __________________ Hobby Experience: 9200ish gallons, 26 skimmers, and a handful of Kent Scrapers. Current Tank: Vortech Powered 600G SPS Tank w/ 100gal frag tank & 100g Sump. RK2-RK10 Skimmer. ReefAngel. Radium 20k. Last edited by tkeracer619; 06/21/2019 at 01:26 AM.

06/22/2019, 04:28 AM	#3
Big E Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: South Euclid, OH Posts: 4,281	Nice work! __________________ 80g Rimless Acropora System reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2197142&page=31 Ed

06/25/2019, 03:40 PM	#5
LQT Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Fairfield, CT Posts: 1,516	Love the tinkering skills! __________________ - Leon (aka - Water Dog) Deep Blue 57 Edge ATI Acro Garden Build Thread http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=25573384#post25573384 Current Tank Info: DeepBlue 57 Edge

07/06/2019, 07:53 PM	#8
Fishbulb2 Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Bethesda, MD Posts: 1,807	Very well done. Looks clean. __________________ Just getting back in, but trying to do it right! Current Tank Info: 40 gallon tank. SPS, LPS, few softies

06/24/2019, 07:25 PM	#4
moondoggy4 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: menifee So cal Posts: 11,042	So you dared to look behind the curtain. Congrats. Great tips. Very helpful.

07/06/2019, 03:09 PM	#7
moondoggy4 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: menifee So cal Posts: 11,042	Now I need to find one of these UV lights on the cheap so that I can do the mod, I will be getting a 270 gallon tank soon enough, so this should work nicely.

03/05/2020, 05:50 PM	#10
green1181 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Posts: 101	I just purchased the same used Pentair 40w and looks like it needs a ballast. How is this going long-term? Thinking of doing the same thing but can't find a Phillips ballast here in Oz. Think this would work?? https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3265...21eLp5HQ0&mp=1 Last edited by green1181; 03/05/2020 at 10:54 PM.