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Mantella20 
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 Topic: VHO ballast ?
Posted: May 08 2005 at 11:30am |
Hey, I just set up my lighting for my 125 gallon, 2 vho ballasts running 4 - 6 foot bulbs. I am curious as too how hot these ballasts should be, so I can correct anything before it goes to wrong (murphy's law). The ballasts right now are too hot to keep a hand on them. They are made by advance. Thanks,
Ed Parker
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Chris
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Posted: May 08 2005 at 3:28pm |
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My VHO ballast is cool to touch all the time, only a slight increase in temp can be felt. Make sure your ballast is not ment to run 2 - 48" bulbs instead of 2 - 72" bulbs. My ballast is only ment to run up to 96" or 220 watts of bulb. If you have the same ballast this could cause a real problem when trying to run 320 watts of bulbs. Hope this helps.
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Mantella20
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Posted: May 08 2005 at 4:07pm |
The ballast is actually meant to run up to 2 - 92" bulbs, so I know it isn't an excessive bulb load. I just realized it is a rapid start ballast, and I don't see it labelled as an electronic, could this explain the heat? 320 watts is quite a bit to be pulling through one ballast I know, but it just seems very inefficient to create that much heat at the ballast. Anyway, please anybody else that has comments, let me know :)
Ed Parker
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faviasteve
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Posted: May 08 2005 at 6:22pm |
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Magnetic VHO ballasts can get fairly hot- that's normal. Not usually as hot as metal halide magnetic cores, but still hot. They're probably about 90% efficient and electronic VHO ballasts are 99% efficient.
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Steve Burton
Logan, Utah
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: May 08 2005 at 9:15pm |
I'm going to take a wild guess that you bought two Advance brand NO ballasts to run your four 6' tubes. If I'm wrong, let me know. 
Electronic ballasts, like Icecap, Workhorse, and ARO, are specifically made to run VHO tubes (as well as PC's). They run surprisingly more effecient and cooler. 
Also, just curious, how much did you pay for those Advance ballasts?
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Mantella20
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Posted: May 09 2005 at 12:33am |
Mark, they are made for VHO, it says on the ballast itself what bulbs it can run. I payed under $50 for the two of them. If they bother me too much, I will just replace them with workhorse ballasts or something, but they do seem to run fine, other than fairly hot. The light output seems very good, and already the small corals that were on my various live rock seem more lively. Would it be best to run 4 workhorse 7 ballasts for my 6 foot bulbs, or does workhorse have a ballast to run 2 6 footers? Thanks again guys,
Ed Parker
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scubadave
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Posted: May 09 2005 at 1:40am |
If it's any conciliation to you Ed,
I have two advance vho ballast also that run 4-160 watt VHO bulbs and the ballast are always to hot to hold your hand on when they are in operation.
I have run mine that way for a few years now with no problems.
IMO= Don't worry
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jfinch
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Posted: May 09 2005 at 8:54am |
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Ed, where did you buy the ballasts? and what model are they?
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Mark Peterson
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Posted: May 09 2005 at 9:47am |
$50 is my kind of price to run four 6' tubes.
It takes four WH-7 ballasts to run the same lights and the ballasts cost $40 each! 
You get a *ding* for saving money. I hope Adam doesn't mind me giving a *ding*
To dissipate the heat, I hang fluorescent ballasts on a nail on the back of the stand.
Edited by Mark Peterson
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Mantella20
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Posted: May 09 2005 at 1:49pm |
Thanks for the reply guys. I will not worry much about them then, and just run them till they die :). I got the ballasts off ebay as brand new, and I don't have the model number with me right now. I am going to make some aluminum heat boxes for them today, just so they can't melt anything else and I will put some cooling fans on them. Hopefully this will increase their life a bit. Thanks again, such a relief to not have to worry much about them .
Ed Parker
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