1500ma ballasts NOT required for VHO

[ren]

You can run up to 2 48" 110W bulbs on a 800MA ballast. Hamiliton sells 800Ma ballasts stating this.
<a href="http://www.hamiltontechnology.com/" target="_blank">http://www.hamiltontechnology.com/</a>
The 1500Ma ballasts are for 4 bulb configurations. They call it the superVHO.
You can pick up a GE 980Ma ballast from local home centers for under $30.00 And they do work. Here is a artical showing the wiring for these ballasts:
<a href="http://saltaquarium.about.com/library/weekly/aa071598.htm" target="_blank">http://saltaquarium.about.com/library/weekly/aa071598.htm</a>

 

[ramey70]

Yes, but what is the wattage limitation of the GE ballast?

 

[ren]

Its not listed on the ballast. But like I had said before- I was running 40W HO - not NO -bulbs and I tried to see if the VHO bulbs would fire and nothing. Wired up the GE ballasts and they fired instantly. I'm positive that they are running at 110W off the GE ballasts. They supply more current and other people are using them as well.

 

[krusk]

Ren,
Is it a Electronic Ballast?

 

[theponds]

Do you have a part number for the ballast?

 

[krusk]

if you pick up the balast at HD, Loweetc
do you have the SKU number by change?
thanks

 

[ramey70]

These setups do NOT fire VHOs to their full effectiveness. Do not waste your money on this. I spoke to people at Icecap and Coralife and both said that although the ballast will fire and light up the bulbs they will not put off VHO quality light. More than one person on this board has been very skeptical of this setup. Ask yourself, why would companies like Icecap, Coralife, and Hamilton make a special VHO ballast for x amount of dollars when GE has been making them for $30? Why wouldn't the sharks on this board know something about it? If there is any lesson to be learned in this hobby it's that if something sounds too good to be true then it usually is.

 

[wamp]

Just to add to the conversation.. They are runing at full power.. If the current supplied is enough to power the bulb the wattage is than devoleped.. Watts is a term for power. Power is not supplied it is a measurment of current(squared)x resistance. So, to sum up. If you have enough current to run the bulb and you stay within the limits of the bulb numbers the power will be equal to p=I(squared)R... R relates to the number of bulbs and I is the total amount of current draw.. R also relates to the total Impendence of the circuit.. I will not even go into that..
Understand? I am not good at explaing things like this...
Also you can take the voltage E and current and read it like this.. P=IxE..

 

[wamp]

Ramey70... Not flaming... Just ask your self this... Why would they tell you a 30$ ballast works just as good as their 170$ one?
Lets thank of another skam in this business...
Hmmm....... Carib Sea and south down? Same Plant.. Same stuf... Just diffrent packing and since Carib Sea is sold in the aquarium trade it cost 10 times more.... Just a thought..

 

[ramey70]

Look, if you want to do it then do it. Have fun pretending you have VHO lighting. No one is questioning my setup so it doesn't bother me. I just know I'd be very upset if someone had convinced me to buy this when I first set up my tank.

 

[wamp]

Cool... I have the real thing.. I am running 4 VHO 72" under my hood.. Running off real VHOs ballasts but.. If I had a smaller tank and did not worry about my Electric bill I might run the ones form Lowes.. They are extremly ineffecient..
I think sammy? says it best,
your tank~your choice

 

[ramey70]

For one thing, I went Lowes and their lighting expert said the most powerful ballast they had was only capable of 160 watts of output. So if it was rated at about 900ma then it could handle two 24" VHO bulbs at 75watts a piece or one 36" or one 48" bulb at 95watts and 110watts respectively. You could wire 4 110watt bulbs to this setup and yes they would fire but not put out maximum output. You must keep in mind that just because they light up and like just as bright to our ours it doesn't mean they are putting out the same PAR.

 

[ramey70]

Wamp
Didn't mean to sound pissy, it's just that it is not uncommon for people to have $1000 worth of corals in thier tank. Why skimp out on an experimental ballast setup when you can spend $80 more and KNOW you have the real thing. It's not worth being wrong.

 

[wamp]

Lowes expert... oxymoron.... But anyway, OK you win.. For some reason these Lowes ballast defiy Ohms law, and every other electronic law out there.. I guess me and you will have to disagree on this topic..

 

[ren]

Yes they are electronic ballasts. Ramey70 seems to be the ONLY person here insisting they won't work however has supplied no 'proof' to this other that the lighting expert from lowes or his LFS guy. Bottom line whatever you want to believe is they do work, they work fine, I AM running 440W VHO and ramey70, I'm sorry that your so upset about how much you spent on yours. Speaking of, if you really looked on the Hamilton site you would have seen they sell just the ballast alone for think it was 55 bucks - from a aquarium supplier - knowing this is it so hard to believe that a national chain store such as lowes would have them for 30?

 

[ramey70]

Okay Einstein how do 4 110watt bulbs work to their full effictiveness on 160 watts of electricity?

 

[ramey70]

Let me ask you this also. I took my 2 95 watt URI bulbs out of my setup and put them in the 60 watt stock NO hood that came with my aquarium. They lit up and were very bright. Is this now VHO lighting? I mean the lit up and all and that seems to be the only PROOF in your mind for them to be VHO right? What proof do you have that these are VHO ballasts besides the ampere rating? I do admit that it will run VHO bulbs effectively but the maximum wattage would be 160 watts. Enough for one 3 foot or 4 foot bulb or 2 2 foot bulbs. That's all. Not very cost effective if you ask me.

 

[ren]

well first off the only ballasts I've seen with wattage ratings are MH ballasts and yes they must match the bulb. Flor ballasts however have a amperage rating. And, lol, once again these ballasts run 2 (TWO) bulbs. NOT 4 but 2 ok?
I have 2 ballasts running 4 bulbs.
2nd - na not just the fact they lit when they wouldn't on my HO fixture, I also did some number crunching with the current. I don't know what the current is from your 'stock' hood but aparently enough to light them.

 

[ramey70]

Go to GE's website. You can look the numbers up for yourself. Their highest rated ballast is only rated for 160 watts capable of running 4 40 watt bulbs. Of all the two lamp ballasts the highest wattage was 80 watts. So if you two 110 watt URI's on an 80 watt ballast I'm afraid you just don't have VHO lighting. You can look the numbers up yourself at GE's site. It's a rather large download in PDF format. Now if you had 4 bulbs on 4 of the 160 watt ballasts I might agree with you. Like someone else said before, my LFS also tests their VHO bulbs on normal output commercial strip fixtures. The bulbs light up just fine. According to you I guess that's VHO lighting also.

 

[ren]

Well, no where have I seen that ANY flor or pc need be wattage ballanced to the ballast. No where is there a wattage rating on the ballasts we've talked about (icecap/corallife/ and certianly not at hamiltons site). All I have seen for wattage ratings and what must be matched are MH's. You said that your VHO's fired on your 'stock' ballasts and lit bright.
Ya gotta understand what is VHO lighting Very High Output - it is the Wattage (power) of the bulb. The ballast's function it simply to provide the current to light the bulb. It either will or won't. There is no middle ground and no deminished capacity here lol. When the phosphers begin to burn out and the wavelengths are reduced is the ballast at fault? NO! Its the bulbs that get replaced. VHO lighting is simply that VHO Very High Output 110 Watts for a 48" bulb. The 40 Watt 48" bulbs are HO High Output and the NO Normal Output are the low wattage bulbs - not sure here 15-20 watts I think. Just what do you believe VHO lighting is? The wavelengths produced? That is by Bulb design NOT the ballast. Take URI bulbs - they have internal reflectors to reflect more of the emmitted light downward than another competitors bulb.