ballist

Rogergolf66

Why do you have to have a ballast. why can't I use floresents T5s from home depot.

Roger

Robnjo

don't all fluros have ballasts just some are small and bulit in, you don't always see them...I'm known to be wrong 90% of the time by the way

jones57742

Not this time!

All fluorescent lighting requires a ballast.

TR

caferacermike

As was stated above, all flouro uses some sort of ballast to change the electrical current. Some ballasts are known as "smart ballasts" and can fire numerous sizes of bulbs. T5 is not yet popular here in the States so you might have a hard time just walking into HDepot and buying a ballast from them. They are commonly available from any lighting shop. HDepot does sell some basic T5 strips with a ballast built in.

One thing to remember, it's not the bulb that makes T5 so fantastic, it's the reflectors. The general thoughts in the trade are that TEK reflectors from Sunlight Supply are the only ones worth buying. The rest are just bulbs and reflectors.

Rogergolf66

are T5s the way to go. right now I mainly do softy corals. Right now I have metal halides but my electric bill went up 3 times the amount when I put them in.

could I do T5s instead or do you recomend them in line with the halides?

Roger

jones57742

Learn something new every day.

Thanks CM.

Will log that one in my brain for when I hopefully fabricate an aquarium for my office.

TR

usmc121581

Dont feel bad on the electric bill. Maryland's BGE is raising there electric up 50% june 1st.

Mrmofo

metal halide i think are mainly used for fairly deep tanks. the T5 is sort of like a shot gun sprey which hits many places but the metal halide is like a sniper rifle that penetrates deep water. but the metal halide also has a small spread of light.i think u can get bat reflectors and that helps spread it abit? but i dont know to much about the halide just that its for deep water.fluro is the way to go if ur worried about electrical prices.

caferacermike

I cannot imagine why your electric bill would triple, unless you were being sarcastic. My 500w of halide at 6 hours a day is hardly noticeable on my electric bill. It's simple math. Adding 3x 250w of halide will not triple anything. It's a matter of 750w x6-8 hours a day. If used for 6 hours a day that totals 4,500w or 4.5KW. At my house a KW costs 11 cents before all the taxes and fees are added, when you look at the big picture a KW costs about 20 cents. So your electric bill would rise maybe $27 a month. Now that only can be if you had zero lights before hand. So lets assume you replace 300w of flouro with 750w of halide, your bill will only rise about $15 a month. This is fact. I've seen to many people quit on their lights because of something else like an electric dryer, heater, water heater, AC, etc... always blaming their lighting.

FYI, I have several tanks with powerful lighting. A 125g, a 75g, 2x 20g, 10, 30, and a 7g. This combined with our regular electric use amounts to $90 a month in the spring/fall and about $160 a month total in the summer with the AC running.