Overdriving NO tubes

Is anyone here familiar with overdriving NO fluorescent tubes?

I met a DIYer today that does this to his lamps.

Apparently you replace the balast with a higher output Electronic ballast
(About $10 from home depot) and it can double even triple the output of the
bulb. It operates at a higher frequency and does not shorten the life of
the bulb much at all. He's had a setup with a twin 30w 36" fixture that
with this balast is doing130watts after 1 year.

Anyone have experience with this?

~Mort

I recently setup a single 48" 40 watt tube with a 2x32watt ballast. It is
brighter, and maybe a little warmer but not much. I'm not sure about bulb
life yet... If you want to read more about overdriving go look at this
thread http://www.plantedtank.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=194

Ron

"Mort" wrote in message
y.com...
Is anyone here familiar with overdriving NO fluorescent tubes?

I met a DIYer today that does this to his lamps.

Apparently you replace the balast with a higher output Electronic ballast
(About $10 from home depot) and it can double even triple the output of
the
bulb. It operates at a higher frequency and does not shorten the life of
the bulb much at all. He's had a setup with a twin 30w 36" fixture that
with this balast is doing130watts after 1 year.

Anyone have experience with this?

~Mort

"Mort" wrote in message gy.com...
Is anyone here familiar with overdriving NO fluorescent tubes?

This is really an interesting idea - I hadn't heard of this before. I
have a 35 gallon hex, which I bought before I was into plants. With
the design of the hood, all I can put on it is a wimpy F15T8. But
maybe if I could overdrive that to 32W or 40W, I would at least be
able to grow some low light plants in there...

- Jim

"Jim Seidman" wrote in message
om...
"Mort" wrote in message
gy.com...
Is anyone here familiar with overdriving NO fluorescent tubes?

This is really an interesting idea - I hadn't heard of this before. I
have a 35 gallon hex, which I bought before I was into plants. With
the design of the hood, all I can put on it is a wimpy F15T8. But
maybe if I could overdrive that to 32W or 40W, I would at least be
able to grow some low light plants in there...

- Jim

Thats exactly right Jim! I am in the same boat as you. Heres something to
consider though. If that light you have now is using a T12 you should be
able to squeeze TWO T8s in there. Home Depot sells all the parts you would
need.

I am really anxious to try this out. I'll keep you posted.

~Mort

"Ron Nelson" wrote in message
...
I recently setup a single 48" 40 watt tube with a 2x32watt ballast. It is
brighter, and maybe a little warmer but not much. I'm not sure about bulb
life yet... If you want to read more about overdriving go look at this
thread http://www.plantedtank.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=194

Ron

Thanks Ron, that is a very helpful post!

~Mort

Glad I could help.

Ron

Thanks Ron, that is a very helpful post!

~Mort

I took the plunge and decided to try an overdriven hood. I have
35-gallon tall hex, and the All-Glass light fixture contains a single
puny F15T8. Given the depth of the tank, this is hardly sufficient for
plants.

By gutting the original fixture, I was able to fit in two F15T8s. This
is largely because the original design needed a fair amount of room
for the internally-mounted ballast. I switched to an external ballast,
which was necessary anyway because of the larger size of electronic
ballasts.

I mistakenly thought that I could overdrive the F15T8s by just hooking
them to a ballast designed for two F32T8s. Wrong! At least with the GE
ballast available at Home Depot, the ballast somehow compensates for
the tube type. This ballast is actually rated to run anything from
F32T8s down to F17T8s, all at a ballast factor less than 1, and when
hooked to F15T8s provided only normal light output.

So I returned the 2xF32T8 ballast in favor of a 4xF32T8 ballast, and
tied a pair of outputs to each bulb. Wow! This really produces a
noticeably brighter light. I wish I had some way to quantify the
difference, but I don't have any of the appropriate tools to do so.

I ran it for several hours yesterday with no signs of overheating. In
fact, the fixture doesn't seem noticeably warmer than it was back when
it contained the internal magnetic ballast.

I pretty excited now to see how well plants will actually do with this
setup. I'm planning on using a combination of tall plants (like
Limnophila sessiliflora) that can get closer to the lights, and
shade-tolerant foreground plants like Anubias. I can't set up the
aquarium until next month due to the hallway being painted, but I'll
keep you all posted.

- Jim

I'm glad to hear it's looks like it might do the trick for you. Don't you
love it when you pull off a good diy?

Ron

"Jim Seidman" wrote in message
om...
I took the plunge and decided to try an overdriven hood. I have
35-gallon tall hex, and the All-Glass light fixture contains a single
puny F15T8. Given the depth of the tank, this is hardly sufficient for
plants.

By gutting the original fixture, I was able to fit in two F15T8s. This
is largely because the original design needed a fair amount of room
for the internally-mounted ballast. I switched to an external ballast,
which was necessary anyway because of the larger size of electronic
ballasts.

I mistakenly thought that I could overdrive the F15T8s by just hooking
them to a ballast designed for two F32T8s. Wrong! At least with the GE
ballast available at Home Depot, the ballast somehow compensates for
the tube type. This ballast is actually rated to run anything from
F32T8s down to F17T8s, all at a ballast factor less than 1, and when
hooked to F15T8s provided only normal light output.

So I returned the 2xF32T8 ballast in favor of a 4xF32T8 ballast, and
tied a pair of outputs to each bulb. Wow! This really produces a
noticeably brighter light. I wish I had some way to quantify the
difference, but I don't have any of the appropriate tools to do so.

I ran it for several hours yesterday with no signs of overheating. In
fact, the fixture doesn't seem noticeably warmer than it was back when
it contained the internal magnetic ballast.

I pretty excited now to see how well plants will actually do with this
setup. I'm planning on using a combination of tall plants (like
Limnophila sessiliflora) that can get closer to the lights, and
shade-tolerant foreground plants like Anubias. I can't set up the
aquarium until next month due to the hallway being painted, but I'll
keep you all posted.

- Jim

"Mort" wrote in message
y.com...
Is anyone here familiar with overdriving NO fluorescent tubes?

I met a DIYer today that does this to his lamps.

Apparently you replace the balast with a higher output Electronic ballast
(About $10 from home depot) and it can double even triple the output of
the
bulb. It operates at a higher frequency and does not shorten the life of
the bulb much at all. He's had a setup with a twin 30w 36" fixture that
with this balast is doing130watts after 1 year.

Anyone have experience with this?

~Mort







Just a little FYI... I tried doing this tonight, I had everything set up.
The stupid lamp holders take 18GA wire. I was so ticked! I went with 14GA
which was too big. =|

Oh well, I'll try again tomorrow if I get time...

~Mort

"Mort" wrote in message . com...
Just a little FYI... I tried doing this tonight, I had everything set up.
The stupid lamp holders take 18GA wire. I was so ticked! I went with 14GA
which was too big. =|

And you want to get 18GA solid wire. If you get stranded, then you'd
have to use solder to tin the ends to actually get them into the
endcaps.

Oh, but if your ballast is going to be external to the fixture, you
want stranded wire between the ballast and the fixture, or else it'll
eventually break from being moved. So then you'd want to use wirenuts
to connect the stranded wire to the solid inside the fixture.

Of course, none of these details were discussed on any of the sites I
researched. :-)

- Jim