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Re: light wiring
>1-what do i look for to connect the ballasts to the bulb sockets
You need 18 awg, solid conductor wire. The important thing is that it
should be rated for 105 C use, which is type TFFN. You will probably need
to get this stuff from an electrical supply house or a wire and cable
distributor. AH Supply includes it with their kits, but I don't know if
they will sell it seperately.
>2-what do i look for to connect the ballasts to the power outlet
A plug and cord assembly. You can save some money by using a molded cord
assembly over buying seperate cable and a plug. Such an assembly should be
under about $5 from a surplus house, try http://www.allcorp.com. Be sure
this is also 105 C rated wire -- usually it will be.
You want a three conductor cord with a grounded plug. The chassis of the
light fixture (if metal) should be connected to the GREEN wire in the cord
which is the ground (might also be green with a yellow stripe). The metal
ballast housing should also be grounded. When making the ground connections
you should use a tooth lockwasher so that the teeth will bite through the
paint on the fixture/ballast and make good electrical contact with the
metal underneath.
>3-should i skip 1 and buy waterproof end caps that are $10 a pair
>(www.thatfishplace.com)
Even with end caps you will probably still need the wire. There used to be
molded endcaps with wire leads already attached, but I havn't seen those in
years. Now everybody seems to just sell regular endcap-only endcaps.
Personally I wonder how much value the "waterproof" part really adds. I use
regular encaps on all of my tanks and have not had any problems with them,
and they were a lot cheaper.
If you need to run a longish length of wire (but not too long -- there are
limits on how far the wire should go between the ballast and the bulb, try
to stay under 15' or so), you could try some simple zip cord. Zip cord is
the two-conductor stuff you see cheap extension cords made with, and most
hardware stores will have it (it is type SPT-1 or SPT-2). Most of the time
it will be 105 C wire, but there is some 60 out there so check. The temp
rating will be printed on the wire. If you use the stranded wire you will
have to tin the conductors with a soldering iron in order to get them to
stay locked into the endcaps.
>thanks for any advice, and i hope this hasn't been covered (i didn't
>find it, but my search wasn't exhaustive)...
Sounds like a new question to me :-)
BTW, word of advice: use stainless steel hardware in the hood. SS hardware
won't make rust streaks over time in the humidity.
-Bill