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T-8 lighting constr., part II
Thanks to everyone who responded to my first post about constructing a T-8
ligting system. I just came back from Home Depot where I did some checking
and asked some questions. The guy there told me that it would be difficult to
locate the 2 electronic ballasts I am going to use in a remote location
(namely on the floor). He said I would definitely need additional lengths of
wiring from what the ballast came with and he didn't really seem to know how
I would even go about setting that up. He also said electronic ballasts don't
generate much heat and so they don't really need to be outside the hood
(although for other reasons I need them in a remote spot anyway). Does
anyone have info or comments on this? Secondly, I did some measurements with
the hood I got for my 55 gallon tank and found that I could stick as many as
9 T-8's in it and still have them all directly over the water. I doubt I'll
put in 9 lights if for no other reason than that I'd have to buy a third
ballast, but would 8 or 7 or 6 T-8's on a 55 be overkill, or perhaps even a
bad thing? Would there be a problem with the bulbs and endcaps being too
close together (when I showed the Home Depot guy how I would put things
togther with the endcaps lined up in a row and virtually touching each other,
he said he'd never seen bulbs that close and led me to believe it might cause
problems). Also, I found T-8 bulbs made by Phillips for 3.98 each that are 6k
with the code TL70. Are these good ones to use, and are they similar to
daylight bulbs? Are the GE "Trimline" 4.1k bulbs I also saw not very good for
plant growth?
Thanks for any help,
Matt