poeticas Posted January 30, 2002 Share Posted January 30, 2002 It seems to me that the DYI kits available on-line are more expensive than simply purchasing a ready made kit from Custom Sea Life. Any other opinions? Link to comment
ltbt8 Posted January 30, 2002 Share Posted January 30, 2002 Hi Poeticas, I agree with you. Makes life easier.:beerchug: How did your eclipse II come along???:thumbs-up: Link to comment
pandabehr Posted January 30, 2002 Share Posted January 30, 2002 I agree also, but in my situation I have two nano's. One 6 gallon and one 2.5 gallon. Lighting systems for both sysems are DIY. To make the tanks look attratctive I had to custom make the lighting systems. I plan on a 100 gallon in the near future, inwhich I gonna buy everything pre-assembled. For my first reef, I made a DIY hood that just ended up costing a-lot of money, more that if I would have purchaed it out right.. Link to comment
poeticas Posted January 30, 2002 Author Share Posted January 30, 2002 Hi LtBt, I haven't put up my lights yet, because I haven't received an intact set yet. I ordered a CSL 55 W retro from ffexpress and the bulb arrived broken. Then yesterday I received the replacement, and this time the bulb wasn't broken, but I noticed that it sounded like it had broken pieces in it. So I put it together and it appeared that the actinic part did not light up. So, I'm waiting for yet another replacement. Link to comment
ltbt8 Posted January 31, 2002 Share Posted January 31, 2002 Sounds like a little bit of bad luck. Hopefully the next one is good, you'll like the way it looks. Good luck!!!:thumbs-up: ps: let me know how it comes out???? Link to comment
NanoReefer53 Posted February 1, 2002 Share Posted February 1, 2002 don't buy the DIY stuff from online stores. for ballasts, just go to your local HomeDepot for them. PC bulbs and regular NO bulbs use the same kinds of ballasts. Bulbs you can probably pick of somewhere cheap like e-bay or www.championlighting.com As for that little thing inside the bulbs. I have that thing too but everything seems to be ok for me. Link to comment
poeticas Posted February 1, 2002 Author Share Posted February 1, 2002 Thanks NanoReefer53, How do you know what kind of ballast to buy from Home Depot? Link to comment
ltbt8 Posted February 2, 2002 Share Posted February 2, 2002 Hi poeticas, you could check out inlandreef.com. They have a DIY for the eclipse thats pretty cool. It's under DIY in main menu. Link to comment
NanoReefer53 Posted February 2, 2002 Share Posted February 2, 2002 Aww...i had a whole list on a tiny sheet of paper on my desk (full of clutter) with all the kinds for different ones so here is what i have again found. Advance Ballasts REL-2P32 = 2x28watt REL-4P32-RH-TP = 4x28watt REL-2P60 = 2x55watt doh ! i know i had more out there. Anyways, it should be if the ballasts powers the wattage equilvilent to the ammout you are using, it should work fine. Link to comment
keiretsu Posted February 8, 2002 Share Posted February 8, 2002 I agree w/ DIY on average costing more . . . but it is so much more fun! Link to comment
OscarBeast Posted March 1, 2002 Share Posted March 1, 2002 I really think it depends on what you are doing. The difference is that with DIY, that you can make things HOW you want them to work and fit instead of being stuck with something you don't really like. Link to comment
aquajones Posted March 13, 2002 Share Posted March 13, 2002 DIY projects can cost more if what you need is availible in a retro. Or you don't already have some of the parts. Example I rewired a Alglass light for a 38g for $2. Add $17 for the bulb & thats 32w for $19. I also had other items that I needed to complete project like acrylic glue ... Link to comment
flaunt Posted March 13, 2002 Share Posted March 13, 2002 Nanoreefer, Are you saying that you can use a regular fluorescent ballast with compact fluorescent lamps? If so, how do you do the wiring? I was looking at the diagrams on http://www.advancetransformer.com for some of the ballast models you mentioned, but they show wiring NO lamps in parallel, while ballasts such as REL-2TTS39 show wiring 2 PC lamps in series... I counted the wires and I just don't see how you could get a 2x28 PC fixture from a ballast that is 2x32 NO. If anything I would think you'd need a NO ballast suitable for twice the number of NO bulbs as PC bulbs that you want in your lighting... Help me out with some more information if you can. Link to comment
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