Psychosis Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 All right, I've been trying to figure out how to improve the lighting on my Boyu 9 with out electrocuting myself, or just blowing everything up. Then it occured to me, I have random little screw in sockets laying around all over the place (a throw back to my reptile keeping days.) Instead of struggeling to figure out how to work ballasts and what not, I could just gut the hood and then slap 3 of those in. Then I could get 3 Coralife screw in bulbs and run that over the tank. It beats the hell out of my single 18 watt 50/50. On the downside, I've heard mixed reviews on the bulbs themselves. From a very reliable source, the internal ballasts suck apparently. On the up side, I'd basically only have to pay for the bulbs. Since you can get them for cheap online, I could just replace them every few months. Plus, theres basically no wireing involved on my end. It wouldn't be a mod I could suggest to others, but I think it would work perfectly for what I have in mind. Hell, I could just keep the stock bulb and put two coralife bulbs around it. Theres plenty of room. So, is this a crackpot cheapwad's plan, or is it feasible? Link to comment
Psychosis Posted January 12, 2009 Author Share Posted January 12, 2009 Oh yea, I modified the post heavily soo...bump I suppose. Link to comment
Kraylen Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 Or.................... You can save your money and buy a real hood. Link to comment
pismo_reefer Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 you could do it...i dont see why not....i dont like the screw in bulbs much tho, and have had lots of experience with them....why not just buy a PC retro kit for the same price of 3 screw-in's? you'll have waay less heat, and a lot better light output. just because the "screw-in" PC's are 20watt's doesnt make em worth a dam.... oh and before someone responds to this post with "i've seen great results from screw-in PC's", i havent and i would really like to see these great, long-term results. btw....im pretty sure that my coralife 20watt "screw-in's" are causing the cyano outbreak in my pico.... EDIT: damn...kray beat me to it! Link to comment
BLoCkCliMbeR Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 whats a "Boyu 9" ? and whats the measurements on it? since everyone is goin T5 alot of fishstores got the coralife 18-55 watt prewired ballst on sale for like 50-60 bucks....(at least in my area) those probably would be the least involved to work with.....and you could always decide later that you dont wanna run 18watts and get bigger bulbs..... Link to comment
Psychosis Posted January 12, 2009 Author Share Posted January 12, 2009 Mind defining real hood? I find the whole retro fit thing a bit daunting. Actually pismo, you're my reliable source on the screw in's being bad so. I think I'll skip 'em for now. I'm just not so sure about the retrofit thing, seeing as I'm virtually electrically retarded. edit: The boyu is basically a nano-cube knock off. I think it's something like 13.5 inches in every direction, I'll have to double check. Link to comment
BLoCkCliMbeR Posted January 12, 2009 Share Posted January 12, 2009 http://www.thefind.com/pets/browse-coralife-2-lamp there should be minimum wiring....just bolt em in http://www.thefind.com/pets/info-ez-ballast oops wrong one....its called a EZ double ballast..... Link to comment
Psychosis Posted January 12, 2009 Author Share Posted January 12, 2009 Well thats interesting. I haven't seen that before. I guess I should look around a bit harder. Link to comment
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