Ice Cap Tech Question

[rayvyn]

I am making the move over from reef to fresh water and no longer need to run my VHOs... I have the 660 ballast currently wired to run 2 60" VHO 50/50s... My question is, can this be used to drive 2 NO 48" bulbs or will they go boom?? Either wired as is or in some new config??

Any help would be great but being that it is electricity and I HATE getting zapped, please try not to guess...

 

[Hammer]

As long at they were wired correctly before, it will run the two 48" NO bulbs just fine.
You could even change the wiring and run 4 x 48" NO bulbs over the FW tank with cheap 6500k bulbs at Home Depot to make FW plants grow like crazy.

 

[rayvyn]

What I can't get into is the constant battle to keep the glass clear of algae... I am sick of cleaning it every other day and don't have the time it takes anymore... I want no-grow lights...

 

[rayvyn]

That is alot of info but I think it goes in a different direction than I am looking to go... To restate my goal, what I want is a decent light that grows NOTHING!! I am sick of cleaning the algae off the glass everyday so I am going to a fresh water, junk light system... The reason for the VHO 660 ballast is that it is already in my canopy and running so it is the easiest answer... I want no more than a decent light to illuminate the tank... Feeding it photosythintecially is of no concern beyond the fact that I don't want to at all...

The question then I guess becomes, what bulbs would be best for this purpose??

 

[rayjay]

The 660 will run 4 NO's as I have been doing that now for a year with good results. However, the only lamps I know of to keep algae from growing are UV lamps, and you sure don't want to use those over a tank with fish in it.
Algae is just one of the things that come with this hobby, although until the system has matured, it takes more cleaning than after.

 

[rayvyn]

Not sure how long they take to mature but can say that after 1 year, had to clean mine every other day to keep the glass clear... To keep it perfectly clean would have had to have done it daily... In 4 or 5 days, could not see into it in all areas... That is more than I have time or interest to deal with... I like the hobby but I have a full time job, family and other stuff that takes my time so I am jumping back to a nice Chiclid tank and cutting down the hours...

On the bulbs I know I can not stop it but if the people get the point of what I want, hoping I can limit down as much as possible...

 

[MFisher]

I'd ask the tech people at Icecap in an e-mail. I'm pretty sure they will respond quickly IME.

BTW why are you ging from reef to FW??? I just can't get into it like I used to.

Once you go reef you never go back.