Over driving NO lighting

[Stab_Master_Arson]

I have a couple questions.

I want to overdrive F40T12 Bulbs on 48" Canadian tire/home depot "work light" ballasts.

I understand that you can just rewire the ballasts to accept only 1 bulb which bumbs the output by about 1.7 times. I want to run 3 over drivin bulbs.

Right now I have 2 coralife 50/50's and 2 coralife actinics sitting around.

My questions are:

Does anybody have any experience doing this? Does it get too hot?

Where is a good place in the Vancouver area (perferably closer to Coquitlam) to buy bulds and flourescent equipment?

Thanks

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Stab_Master_Arson

I have a couple questions.

I want to overdrive F40T12 Bulbs on 48" Canadian tire/home depot "work light" ballasts.

I understand that you can just rewire the ballasts to accept only 1 bulb which bumbs the output by about 1.7 times. I want to run 3 over drivin bulbs.

Right now I have 2 coralife 50/50's and 2 coralife actinics sitting around.

My questions are:

Does anybody have any experience doing this? Does it get too hot?

Where is a good place in the Vancouver area (perferably closer to Coquitlam) to buy bulds and flourescent equipment?

Thanks

you can do it with an electronic ballast, but I can tell you now it is a waist of time. the increase in light you will get will still be nowhere near that of a PC, HO, VHO, ect..

Steve

[TheReefGeek]

Yeah, if you are buying new bulbs anyways, just buy a proper electronic ballast

[fishmanty]

Today I purchased 2 PC ballasts, meant to hold 4 bulbs each. I decided to overdrive both ballasts, and have only 2 bulbs in each ballast. I have never seen a PC as bright as this one... and the best part of it is, it all cost $120 with extra 55watt 10,000k bulbs!!

Wiring only took me 30min, now i just need to install them into a reflector and im set.


They do get hot, so tomorrow i will be buying fans from Radio shack to help get air moving in there.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by fishmanty

I decided to overdrive both ballasts, and have only 2 bulbs in each ballast. I have never seen a PC as bright as this one...

its amazing how a slight increase in visual brightness makes us think it is putting out way more light. when I overdrove my 55 watt PC's for a test I only got a 6% increase in PAR but they looked way brighter.

Steve

[TheReefGeek]

Do you have a PAR tester then? I have always been curious to test my setup.

[Invigor]

Originally Posted by TheReefGeek

Do you have a PAR tester then? I have always been curious to test my setup.

of course he does, this is steve we're talking about! (he's a lighting nerd)

[TheReefGeek]

I'm well on my way to Nerd, but have to settle with Geek for now. Maybe once I get a par meter, refractometer, pH controller, etc.

[TommDool]

I have over driven t10 bulbs. I noticed my 12" bulbs driven 4x were increadible. When I went to a bigger tank I just added 48" bulbs to the over driven ballasts. I don't think they are as bright as when I was only overdriving the 12" ones. Still really bright compared to not having them over driven. I had these ballast floating around (which is a t8 electric from CT) If I had to spend the money I just get a workhorse 7 and run T5HO, PC or VHO. I think it would cost about the same and you could still overdrive them for that extra bit if you must.

[TheReefGeek]

Workhorse 7? And can you explain overdriving and how you do it?