taiscici May 6, 2014 Share May 6, 2014 This tank is 1 year old, I had 150 before this for almost 2yrs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime May 6, 2014 Author Share May 6, 2014 Cool. Following along since I could use more light in the front and back. Let me know if you need help putting it together. I'd love to help / learn. Will do, I think think is the answer! I'll keep you UD as I go through it myself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taiscici May 6, 2014 Share May 6, 2014 Isaac if you decide to go with reefgeek here are 2 coupon codes you can use. Save25 $25 off $150 or more Save10 $10 off $75 or more They both expire 6/30/14 Good luck with the built! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime May 6, 2014 Author Share May 6, 2014 Isaac if you decide to go with reefgeek here are 2 coupon codes you can use. Save25 $25 off $150 or more Save10 $10 off $75 or more They both expire 6/30/14 Good luck with the built! Roger that, thanks for the share! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
howaboutme May 7, 2014 Share May 7, 2014 This tank is 1 year old, I had 150 before this for almost 2yrs. Were the corals all from frag or small colonies from your previous tank? If so, amazing growth! Sorry Isaac for hijacking..that kind of tank needs attention! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taiscici May 7, 2014 Share May 7, 2014 Were the corals all from frag or small colonies from your previous tank? If so, amazing growth! Sorry Isaac for hijacking..that kind of tank needs attention! Thanks Jack. Most of the big colonies you see are wild colonies i recently purchased, and some colonies are from frags and small colonies from previous tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime May 7, 2014 Author Share May 7, 2014 Were the corals all from frag or small colonies from your previous tank? If so, amazing growth! Sorry Isaac for hijacking..that kind of tank needs attention! Yeah, super serious, why don't you bug him via PM to start a build thread, I agree it needs some attention! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime May 28, 2014 Author Share May 28, 2014 So let me catch everyone up to speed if they are interested in following my journey. I ended up getting some super sweet reflectors from Marcos, and a workhorse 7 ballast. I have NO clue what I'm doing, but I think I'm learning! I got in on this Reefgeek group buy, and added in 2 pairs of endcaps, and two mounts. Once the GB arrives, I'll be set, but in the meantime, I want to wire up my ballast and have everything ready to set. I have decided to keep the actinics and some whites from my radions, but in order to see some growth, I hope the two T5 ATI Coral Plus HO (5', or 80w) will do the job (these are what I got...) I took an old computer power cable, and spliced it to the ballast so I could plug it in. The other side has two outputs (from the ballast,) one with 3 wires, and one with 2 wires. I presume the color does not matter. I went to the Fullham website, and I'm pretty sure the wiring diagram that I'm looking for is the following: Diagrams for T5 Linear HO with a bulb set 2xF80 HO Can somebody smarter than me confirm or deny? By the time the endcaps are here, I want to be able to wire everything up and plug and play! Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monkiboy May 29, 2014 Share May 29, 2014 you're going to have to screen shot the diagram or copy the image code as the link is dead, sir. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zygote2k May 29, 2014 Share May 29, 2014 Don't forget that adding extra heat in and around your LED's can significantly decrease their life. I have seen one of these retro-bulb mods cook a few AI's... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami May 29, 2014 Share May 29, 2014 Isaac, try searching on the phrase "workhorse 7 ballast t5 wiring diagram" using Google. Then, if it's not already selected, look at the images associated with the search. There are a lot of color-coded diagrams available for you. Good point, Rob. Heat is the bane of semiconductor reliability and LEDs are semiconductors. If you're going to be adding heat or reducing cooling (or airflow), you could be adversely affecting longevity. Sent from my LG G-Pad 8.3 Google Play Edition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orion May 29, 2014 Share May 29, 2014 Don't forget that adding extra heat in and around your LED's can significantly decrease their life. I have seen one of these retro-bulb mods cook a few AI's... T5 bulbs also need to be cooled properly in order to get the most life and PAR from them. Here is an excellent thread on RC that demonstrates why cooling T5s is so important. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2220663 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraffitiSpotCorals May 29, 2014 Share May 29, 2014 Taiscici the tank looks great with the new bulbs! All the Wild tabling colonies that are mounted crooked bug me though. That looks like A lot of Wild coral! How many new Wild colonies are in there? On topic, I added 4 t5s overdirven with a icecap ballast and it is night and day. I had so many spots in the branches of colonies that weren't getting good light from the 2040. And most of the coral looked like it wasn't getting enough light period. The new bulbs seem to have trippled the light. The 2040 had the erc layout, tons of blues and some odd green, violet and red colors, with only a few white bulbs. The look with both at 100 percent was maybe more than 22k. Ewww. I added two ati actintic on the far sides, and a coral plus and aqua blue special next to the evergrow. Looks great and well covered finally. I am slowly upping the time I am running them, starting at 3 hours a day. I reduced the white channel to 75 percent at the beginning and am bumping them back up every few days too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime May 30, 2014 Author Share May 30, 2014 you're going to have to screen shot the diagram or copy the image code as the link is dead, sir. Thanks for that bud, let me try again: Don't forget that adding extra heat in and around your LED's can significantly decrease their life. I have seen one of these retro-bulb mods cook a few AI's... This is something I didn't even take into account when I started thinking it up. Thanks for the reminder, Rob. Do you think maybe if I retrofited some computer fans into the side of the hood that would work? I'm only running two 5' bulbs. Isaac, try searching on the phrase "workhorse 7 ballast t5 wiring diagram" using Google. Then, if it's not already selected, look at the images associated with the search. There are a lot of color-coded diagrams available for you. Good point, Rob. Heat is the bane of semiconductor reliability and LEDs are semiconductors. If you're going to be adding heat or reducing cooling (or airflow), you could be adversely affecting longevity. Thanks, Tom. I actually have a diagram from the Fullham website. I'm not completely sure I follow it, as I have not seen the endcaps, and how the wires hook up there. I have 5 wires running from the ballast total, so it looks like I have two positives, two negatives, and a ground. I am a stranger to electricity, as in the last time I studied it was probably in early high school. Obviously want to make sure I don't wire up any fires, so want to make sure this gets done properly! T5 bulbs also need to be cooled properly in order to get the most life and PAR from them. Here is an excellent thread on RC that demonstrates why cooling T5s is so important. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2220663 Thanks for the link, good information that I also had no idea about. On topic, I added 4 t5s overdirven with a icecap ballast and it is night and day. I had so many spots in the branches of colonies that weren't getting good light from the 2040. And most of the coral looked like it wasn't getting enough light period. The new bulbs seem to have trippled the light. The 2040 had the erc layout, tons of blues and some odd green, violet and red colors, with only a few white bulbs. The look with both at 100 percent was maybe more than 22k. Ewww. I added two ati actintic on the far sides, and a coral plus and aqua blue special next to the evergrow. Looks great and well covered finally. I am slowly upping the time I am running them, starting at 3 hours a day. I reduced the white channel to 75 percent at the beginning and am bumping them back up every few days too. I am seeing the same spots on some of my mini colonies. Better to fix it then to have it be a problem down the road. I will start with the t-5's on 100%, and I will adjust the radions to match a pleasant color when i can actually SEE how it looks. Until then, it's all speculation. I have a feeling the coral plus bulbs will be a game changer for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rioreef May 30, 2014 Share May 30, 2014 By the way, make sure that you get bulb clips with the reflectors or that they come with them. Also, if you run a ground wire along each reflector, it'll drain the induced voltage off of the reflector which can, at times, give you a mild electrical tingle if you brush up against them with your hand in the tank. Now I know what was happening. Time to wire the reflectors after 9 years of getting an occasional 'tingle'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime May 30, 2014 Author Share May 30, 2014 So in the diagram I posted above, under the "linear," how do I make heads/tails of it. For example, the right hand side of the bulbs has an illustrated "2 wires" running off the ballast, however, there are 4 connection points (two for each bulb.) The left side of the bulbs has only one wire running off the ballast, with a total of 4 connection points (two for each bulb.) Keep in mind I have never seen the end caps, except via google search, so I'm still confused as to how I should run the wires to each respective side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami May 30, 2014 Share May 30, 2014 So in the diagram I posted above, under the "linear," how do I make heads/tails of it. For example, the right hand side of the bulbs has an illustrated "2 wires" running off the ballast, however, there are 4 connection points (two for each bulb.) The left side of the bulbs has only one wire running off the ballast, with a total of 4 connection points (two for each bulb.) Keep in mind I have never seen the end caps, except via google search, so I'm still confused as to how I should run the wires to each respective side. It looks like there are two contacts (the metal tabs that make contact with the lamp pins) on each end of the lamp (which makes sense since there are two pins on each end of each lamp) / socket. Each contact has two, redundant wiring points on the socket for a total of four contact wiring points in the socket. the first and last two are paired together. Thus point 1 is the same (electrically) as point 2, and point 3 is the same as point 4. You basically need to tie both contacts together on the one side of the lamp according to the diagram in the lower right. You do this by jumpering the two contacts together through two of the wiring points (in the diagram, they jumper between the second and third wiring points). You then connect one one the ballast wires to one of the remaining wiring points in that socket. The same thing basically happens on the yellow side. Coral Hind is my go-to guy for questions like this, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Ford May 31, 2014 Share May 31, 2014 On the two lamps the one yellow wire is a common wire between all pins on one side of both lamps. The tombstones or sockets you have will have more likely than not four holes for wires to go into. Two are one side of the socket. Two are the other side of a socket. There's a lot of ways to do it but basically have one yellow (or any color. Electricity doesn't know colors) coming off each side of the socket and connect it to the yellow wire going back to the ballast On the other side of the lamps.. If your ballast has four reds you cap off two reds with wire nuts. They don't get used. One red goes to each socket. Then in the second hole of the side you run your red to place a jumper and plug it into the opposite set of holes in the same tombstone I hope that helps. I almost got confused lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime May 31, 2014 Author Share May 31, 2014 I think I got it, left foot in, left foot out, wait... That's not right. So four holes, huh? Not 2? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Ford May 31, 2014 Share May 31, 2014 I've never messed with end caps for aquarium use. Most end caps in 2x4 light fixtures have four holes. 2 on each side Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Ford May 31, 2014 Share May 31, 2014 Have the parts shown up yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Mc May 31, 2014 Share May 31, 2014 I know they are not T5 but I like the stunner strips myself for extra light Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YHSublime May 31, 2014 Author Share May 31, 2014 I've never messed with end caps for aquarium use. Most end caps in 2x4 light fixtures have four holes. 2 on each side 10-4 Have the parts shown up yet? Nope I know they are not T5 but I like the stunner strips myself for extra light Yeah, I seriously looked I to those. T5 solution was cheaper at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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