T5 Ballasts

I have 2 workhorse 7 ballasts running my 2 160w VHO's and will be upgrading to six 80w T5's hopefully by this weekend. when I look up the ballast it says it can run two 80 watt T5's, so I figured I would need a third ballast . . . untill I started looking on e-bay.

59" T5 RETRO FIT KIT 8 X 80 W REMOTE CONTROL AND MOONS - eBay (item 230192426235 end time Oct-05-09 10:58:58 PDT)

How is it that this setup has eight 80watt T5 bulbs running off 2 workhorse 5 ballasts? There only 128 watts each, but its pushing 650 watts of light? Is it like a car amp that can be bridged, or something else that I am missing? Do I need a third ballast to run all 6 of my planned bulbs, or is there someway to make this work?

~Will.

 

Must be a misprint... One cord? Even if the WH5 were daisy chained together it wouldn't work... Moon light cord? They don't run off the WH5s... A WH5 can light 1 80w lamp or 2x54w lamps... I have 1 WH7 per 2 lamps on my retro... You COULD use a WH7 to OVERDRIVE one 80w lamp but that is beside the point...

I would say that the Catalina lighting post is wrong, as its impossible to pull off what they are advertising...

 

Cool, third ballast it is then. That will work out nice as i could get an early dawn, late dawn, mid day, early dusk, late dusk cycle going. Frag, I was checking out your 180 build thread . . . do you use moon lights at all? if so, where are they in your canopy? with 6 SLR reflectors over an 18" wide tank I'm not sure if i'm going to have room for mine.

~Will.

 

No, I don't... I thought about it but the only place I could put them is on the ends off the lamps and in my eyes its not worth it...

Once I get my darn USB cord back from oblivion I will post some updated pics.

 

Think I could notch out the middle 2 reflectors to add them in, or will that kill my light output?

~Will.

 

You mean like cut a half circle in each to sneak the LED in?

 

I have those lunar links moon lights, there kinda square so I could just notch out the reflectors and mount them to the top of the canopy. But if cutting out little squares in the reflectors is a dumb idea I'll just skip it.

~Will.

 

Well I guess it depends on how bad you want lunar lights?

Is there a way to mount them in the back of the retro so the lights shine down on more of the rear of the tank?

 

I wont know if theres room for anything until tomorrow when I get the reflectors in hand. There supposedly sunlight supply SLR's that came with an icecap retro. The review on their website says there 3" wide each, but I have been reading its the icecap's that are 3", and the sunlight supply's are only 2" wide. If the reflectors are only 2" I wont have any problems squeezing in the moon lights, but the 3" ones would have to get cut up.

Another confusing part is the guy says he had to cut the last bend off a couple of the reflectors to get them to fit in his 18" wide canopy, making me think they are the icecaps. It's really confusing, and whats worse is to get this done by this weekend I need to get started on the canopy today before I get any of my lighting in hand.

~Will.

 

Sorry to burst your bubble... Tek's SLRs are 3" wide...