paaschjc

I bought a lot of 20 GE 4 bulb F32T8 ballasts. I'm using 4 for my 240g tank and saving another 4 for the future. I've got 12 left over to sell. They can be used to overdrive T8s. I tested it myself today before listing them here. $15 a piece (They normally cost $30) or might be interested in trading for plants.

MatPat

Janina,

I would be interested in at least 3 of the ballasts to replace the noisy magnetic ballasts I have in the garage and maybe another 3-4 for some upcoming lighting for my new 75g.

I have plenty of plants I can spare for a trade right now. A few decent sized Anubias barteri, a couple of Java Ferns, both regular and Narrow Leaf, and plenty of stem plants. The 55g is very full at the moment so if you want to go on a shopping trip, just let me know

jrings

how do you overdrive the lights. I have heard this in the past but i am not sure exactally how to wire them.

paaschjc

It's actually quite easy to overdrive them especially since the wiring diagram is right on the ballast. I've never done any wiring before and I had no problem figuring it out.
I'll try to attach a picture. sorry it's not that good (cell phone camer) but I couldn't find the wire the upload from my camera.

Attached Thumbnails

 

MatPat

Here is a thread at Planted Tank that covers ODNO lighting very well. Be warned it is 19 pages long and has links to Reef Central where all of this originally started:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...highlight=odno

Here is another thread that lists the acutal light output measurements of different types of ODNO and regular lamps:
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...highlight=odno

A search on most forums (maybe even GCAS) will get you a bunch more info on ODNO lighting.

MatPat

The pic that Janina posted is actually the normal wiring for the lights. that would give you 32 watts per bulb.

In order to 2x ODNO a bulb you would connect both blue wires to one bulb and both red wires to a second bulb. This theoretically puts 64 watts into each bulb. I think only about 48-50 watts actually get used by the bulb considering ballast factor and safety circuitry inside of the ballast. The yellow leads would connect to the opposite end of each bulb.

To 4x ODNO a bulb, you would connect both the blue and red leads into one bulb. This theoretically puts all 132 watts of the ballast into the bulb. I'm not sure how many watts really make it into the bulb this way. The second link in the above post should spell it out a bit more.

paaschjc

I still 4 ballasts left...