HQI light question? Time to update again.

[ac7av]

That was a bid deal but out of 4 lights I bid on I got all 4 for the minimum price.

The ballasts are the silver odyssey ballasts. I know they are junk but they do the job for now. I have ordered up some of the pieces to do the upgrade to them and actually get 250 watts out of them.

 

[mimosa]

Do you have a tank picture with your new lights all on?

 

[Crack31]

Where did you get the MOSFETs?

I have the odyssey 250 mh, but upgraded the ballast to a Lumatek ballast. I was thinking about doing the upgrade and keeping the Odyssey ballast as a backup.

 

[ac7av]

I didn’t get the mosfet’s yet. I just put them on order from mouser. No one seems to have them in stock to I guess Ill just wait for them. I don’t have the money to shell out for 3 X 250 watt quality ballasts.

I do not have a tank picture with the new lights but I do have some video with the new lights on my tank build thread on the first post if you click the link below you can watch them.

 

[mimosa]

I checked your video with lots of damsels/cromis feeding. Looks like a nice tank. I noticed a bit yellowish though. Is it because of the viewing angle or the water, hard to tell?

I didn’t get the mosfet’s yet. I just put them on order from mouser. No one seems to have them in stock to I guess Ill just wait for them. I don’t have the money to shell out for 3 X 250 watt quality ballasts.

I do not have a tank picture with the new lights but I do have some video with the new lights on my tank build thread on the first post if you click the link below you can watch them.

 

[ac7av]

Yes my water has a slight yellow or green to it and you are looking threw some thick glass that has a green tint but you can only see that looking across the 6 ft of tank. Also my camera isn’t the greatest but it works and I’m not an expert at pictures or video so color saturation and the over all color may not be true to life but it the best I can do.

 

[mimosa]

Not related to light, but do you use Carbon? if not, I suggest to check into it and give it a try. Really helps with removing yellow tint.

Yes my water has a slight yellow or green to it and you are looking threw some thick glass that has a green tint but you can only see that looking across the 6 ft of tank. Also my camera isn’t the greatest but it works and I’m not an expert at pictures or video so color saturation and the over all color may not be true to life but it the best I can do.

 

[ac7av]

It’s been on my mind. I picked up 4 containers of carbon the other day. I just have not had the time to get it into the sump. I was actually going to work on that tomorrow. It’s not the light it is definitely the water. When I first filled the tank I did not have a RO/DI filter. I do now and have been slowly getting it out of the tank. The water looked like pond water out of the tap. I filled and emptied the tank twice thinking the rock was not clean or something. Didn’t get any better, in fact I think it was a little worse the second fill. Not very clear at all. And to think I drink that stuff.

 

[mimosa]

To prevent carbon particles leaching to the tank, make sure to use it either in a filter sock in your return from tank, or use floss material after carbon stage. Otherwise, you might have some black carbon dust particles in your tank. I don't think they really hurt anything, but...

You do not need bucketful of Carbon. Just use smaller media holder material (like 4"x10" coarse sock or so) and pack it in loosely. Initially you might want to change it soon (once you notice some improvement) and then keep a routine replacement (every month or so).

It’s been on my mind. I picked up 4 containers of carbon the other day. I just have not had the time to get it into the sump. I was actually going to work on that tomorrow. It’s not the light it is definitely the water. When I first filled the tank I did not have a RO/DI filter. I do now and have been slowly getting it out of the tank. The water looked like pond water out of the tap. I filled and emptied the tank twice thinking the rock was not clean or something. Didn’t get any better, in fact I think it was a little worse the second fill. Not very clear at all. And to think I drink that stuff.

 

[ac7av]

I did a water change again yesterday evening and its looking even cleaner. I was planning on using a canister filter with a filter on top and below the carbon to contain it. I am going to try and get that done tonight. I wasn’t planning on dumping 4 containers of it in all at once. Just filling a tray in the canister with it and changing it every so often.

 

[Crack31]

I think some of the yellow can be attributed to the ballasts.
When I upgraded to the Lumatec ballast, it was like night and day.
I am curious to how the mod to the ballast will work.

 

[ac7av]

That could be part of it. I can see even with just the 50/50s on you can see the yellow. I got an update from mouser and it said the parts will be shipping on July 26th. That’s about what I was expecting on that time frame. I will definitely let every one know how the mod goes. I have taken them apart looking it over to see if there was something I could do about it before I read about the mod. I have a watt meter that I use for work and I will be doing before and after readings on them. My concern is going to be the heat on the ballast after the mod. I may put them on a forced air cooling rack. They already get pretty hot, but having never had anything else, maybe good ballasts get even hotter.

 

[ac7av]

Yippee
Got the shipping notification for the Fairchild MOSFET chips today.
Shipping from Fort Worth TX so it should be here around next Wednesday. I can wait to get my hands on them and give it a try. I will sure get some readings from my watt meter before and after for all three ballasts.

 

[ac7av]

It’s been a great day, I got my MOSFET chips in today and so here are the watt results.
Ballast 1 put out 199 watts
Ballast 2 put out a whopping 170 watts
Ballast 3 put out a not do bad 214 watts
Before the change

Now to the good stuff. With the new chips and I also changed the placement of that stupid ground wire that they shoved into the screw hole to the screw for the foot and soldered the end of the wire into a ring. That is just the dumbest thing I ever saw for a ground.
Test results after the mod
Ballast 1 is up to 248 watts
Ballast 2 is up to 250 watts
And ballast 3 is at 261 watts

I also found on the test that each light bulb also would cause a different wattage draw so for the testing I used only one light to test all the ballasts. I have no way to tell how much brighter the lights are now then they were but I can say from sitting watching the lights in the tank and the watt meter there is a considerable difference from 200 to 250 watt draw on the output of the lights. On a side not I think the ballasts seem to be running cooler by a noticeable amount. And for info my line voltage is at 113 vac coming out of the wall around these parts. Ill bet if I had higher line voltage that the output mite even be all in the 260.