which of these two ballast do you find the best fit when replacing old vho setup with 4 4' HO- T-5 bulbs. And will the ice capp 660 run 4 bulbs or 3 bulbs? chime in and help me figure this out. It will run on A mostly SPS tank.
which of these two ballast do you find the best fit when replacing old vho setup with 4 4' HO- T-5 bulbs. And will the ice capp 660 run 4 bulbs or 3 bulbs? chime in and help me figure this out. It will run on A mostly SPS tank.
Wondering this also....havnt heard much myself on the workhorse 7 ballests in a while- and never on a t5ho set up.
I would run your "white" growing light bulbs on T-5 HO overdrivin with the IC and supplement with WH actinics to your likeing
I switched over from an ARO ballast running two 4' VHO's to an icecap 660 running 4X 4' T5HO's with individual reflectors. The difference is amazing. I have a 2' deep watercolumn, so I decided that the icecap overdriving the T5's would give me the penetration that I wanted lower in the tank. I currently have SPS, LPS, Softies, Shrooms, Ricordias, just about everything you can have. Everything seems happy. I keep my SPS in the top 1/2 of the tank and my green sps and my mili have shown signs of growth in just the past week that I've had them.
I would pony up the extra dough for a 660 to run the 4' T5's at 80w IF you have a tank that is deeper than 18". If not, I would just use the Workhorse ballasts to drive the T5's.
how many bulbs will each unit run the ice capp will run what 3 or 4 bulbs same for the work horse how many bulbs will it handle?
The Icecap 660 will run up to 16 feet of bulbs, 4 or less. So, you can run 3 5 footers, 2 8 footers, 4 4 footers.
MAX of 4 bulbs totaling less than or equal to 16 feet.
ok so all i need is the ice cap 660 to run 4 48in bulbs ..Now what reflectors should i get ? what is the best reflector ?
Why not just buy a DIY Retro that included the ballast wiring harness, reflectors, endcaps, and bulbs? Our sponsor PremiumAquatics.com Im sure sells them!
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I have TEK II reflectors and am impressed with the amount of light they bounce back (especially when they were new). They're a few years old now and have some discoloration/staining but still perform pretty well. I've heard that the Icecap reflectors don't stain as quickly/easily but I've never owned one.
+1 to ReeferRobs suggestion.
HTH,
Tom