Diy T5 Lighting

[Pinkfish]

Lighting is an expensive part of this hobby so I thought that I post a thread on how to make your own set of T5 Lights.

Its not hard.

This comes about from me dropping my Arcadia Lumminare 4x39w T5 Light unit into my sump like a muppet and breaking the damm thing.
Mind you I did manage to salvage some of the parts and also the light enclosure.
The Light unit is now fully working and lighting my sump.

What you need :

T5 Ballasts - I used 2 Ballasts both for 2x39w bulbs. Cost £15 each.
T5 Endcaps x 8. Cost £1.20
Switches x 2 (Dont have but this way I can control each Ballast. i.e 2 bulbs on or all 4 on. Cost £3
Various wiring ie Livewire,Earth, Lighting wire (Plain white ine). Cost £7
3 Pin Plug with a 3amp fuse. Cost £1.25

Bulb clips - to attach bulbs to something like the housing

Right heres a wiring diagram (basic one)

The orange / green coloured bulb correspond to the orange / green ballast
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x295/daddypinkfish/DIYt5.jpg
When running the wires from the plug you will need to split the cables so that they can go to 2 different places ie to both ballasts
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x295/daddypinkfish/DIYt5cable.jpg


Below is a diagram for the light switches, note that all the wires are live wires, and that you will have to split the wire as well.
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x295/daddypinkfish/DIYt52.jpg
Below is a picture of the information contained on a T5 Ballast, It tells you all you need to know, like where the earth wire goes. ect.

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x295/daddypinkfish/101_1313.jpg


So total cost of build without housing or bulbs is Around £45 - £50
Now considering that a Arcadia T5 4x39w lumminare costs around £200 thats a good saving to spend on coral instead.

You can do this for 6bulb T5 setup, just need another ballast, and for the 80w T5 bulbs again you need to get 80w Ballasts.


I hope that this is useful to you

Mike

[flobajob]

I've done this with 6x54w t5s. (I used three 2x54w ballasts, so I can switch the lights on in pairs)

You can buy the ballasts from an electrical wholesaler (T5 ballasts are known as 'high frequency electronic ballasts').

I got arcadia ultraseal endcaps and arcadia reflectors. The endcaps are a bit pricey, but are rated to ip67 (that means they can fall in the tank and stay submerged for a few seconds without issues), so I thought they were worth the extra cash.

Here's a pic:
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l55/flobajob/IMGP1649.jpg

Total cost for my 6 bulb set up was £116 (excluding bulbs).

[stegoodall]

ive got a DIY 2x54w ballast and it was easy to do and runs fine.....except when water leaked on it, i just bought a new ballast and swapped the wires over :p nice and easy

[jimbo1]

where can we buy the ballasts?? - there are so many different models, I need one for a 2ft tank

[L1NDON]

I bought one from here

http://www.covershield.co.uk/ballast.htm

It came ok - and they have end caps and clips I think too -

I never used it in the end though as I made my own metal halide lighting unit instead

[jimbo1]

thanks mate;)

[cl0wn]

interesting....

anyone know what ballasts are used in ATI's?

where's john when you need him.:(:(:(:(:(

[cl0wn]

according to this

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=933795

it's the cooling that overdrives the tubes??? is it the ballasts or the cooling or both?????

wanna diy some kick ass t-5's. seen them on andy's tank and they are lush!!!

[MR Teee]

The active cooling improves the PAR output of the tubes by keeping the ends in their optimum temperature range.

The ATI units are not overdriven, this is running a bigger ballast for a set tube, i.e 54W ballast on 39W tubes.

I couldn't get into the back on mine without undoing a gizbillion screws, but I suspect its just an Osram type electronic ballast, with the power modules running dimmable ones.

[oakwell]

great post , very helpful