64W PC + 32W OVDRNO on eclipse 1

[blulegend]

I modified my eclipse 1 top to house 2 32W PCs and an 18" overdriven NO. The NO 18" 15W bulb in the middle is overdriven 2X. It appears about as bright as the 32W 10k bulb except that the NO bulb is 6500k. The 2nd PC bulb in a Hellolights 03 actinic. My tank is bright now!

[gobies]

I've got an Eclipse 2 hood with a blown ballast. How did you do this?

[blulegend]

There's a thread at reefcentral about the overdriven NO light. It in the DIY forum called "DIY VHO" i think.

 

I used a dremel to cut the plastic light cover to fit another PC.

 

Then bought some plexiglass from HD and cut it to fit. Then I glued the new piece on.

 

The PCs are CSL 32W retro kits. THe NO bulbs is an 18" 10000K Corailfe T8 bulb. I used two wires from the 4 bulb ballast for the overdrive NO. You'll know what I mean if you read the thread at reefcentral.

 

Took a lot of time and custom planning. But it worked. If you want to go cheaper, you can just do 3-4 NO overdriven lights. The ballast can run 2 bulbs in series with 2 wires to each pair of bulbs. So you can run 4 bulbs off one ballast though you wont have dusk dawn. It will also power NO actinics which makes them look like VHO actinics. The NO gets warm but not as hot as PC. Gotta experiement.