Cheap DIY T5 Reef lighting

Okay so my friend has a nano cube.. and this is the 2nd one he has had that the ballast has blown up on within like 6 months.

We were looking at ballasts for this thing and all thats in it is a 23 w light. We stumbled across some thread that said you can use the ballasts out of the spiral flourescent bulbs that are literally 3 dollars now days since everywhere is about energy saving.. so we tried to and walaaa it works beautifully for under 5 bucks for wire a light and electrical tape.

Well i was on craigslist and found a cheap coralife T5 light that the guy put new bulbs in it and well the ballast in it no longer worked either. So i looked at it.. he gave me the old bulbs too and when taking that thing apart found out that he replaced the bulbs from it with HO t5 bulbs instead of the ones that he used originally which were NO.

Went to Ace hardware and looked through their recycled bulbs box.. and found some bulbs which were in the 48 W range which i figured could run a 55 watt T5 HO bulb.
Took it apart and removed the ballast and wired it back up

Well all im trying to get it is if your good with splicing a few wires and have a steady hand for a soldering gun.. you can potentially do a T5 HO setup for the cost of some wire end caps, and if your lucky like i was free ballasts out of compact floro bulbs.

 

Good info and congrats on the good finds! Is that going to be enough lighting?

 

I would be curious how much PAR bulbs run by those ballasts are putting out compared to using the ballasts that are normally used in quality T5 fixtures/retrofit kits.
I would also be concerned that your bulb's life might be shortened by those ballasts, I think I read something about how the ballast handles current on startup affects the bulb life.

I don't know how much impact using a cheap ballast really has but those would be my concerns. Of course none of that matters if you're not keeping very light-demanding coral or if you find your bulbs for free, but something to keep in mind.

Good idea