A few weeks back I worked on two Triton bulbs that were not working, so I went to a box of used bulbs and took two out and put them in place of the Tritons and they lit, but they were rather bright. Looking closer at the bulbs I realized that they were VHO's, I found the ballast that ran the bulbs and found that it was an old 2 bulb energy saving shop-light ballast intended to light to 40 watt bulbs with 34 watts each. Now three weeks later the bulbs are still working properly and seem to be at the same brightness as those being run with VHO ballasts.

Last week I found a tank with a plant light bulb that had started to flicker and a VHO that had stopped working. I replaced the VHO, but it still didn't light so I took my volt ohms meter (VOM) and checked the electricity from the end caps as well as those from the plant light. Since there was current between the end caps as they had been set up, but slightly more current between the plant light end caps and VHO end caps, I tried two VHOs in the crossed end caps and they both lit.

On another tank there were four Triton and Blue Moon bulbs none of which were lit to their full intensity. They were being run on two, two bulb energy saving ballasts. Using my VOM I determined that electricity was reaching all of the end caps, I also found that from each ballast there were two end caps with a slightly greater current between them. I used those end caps to light two VHOs.

A brief summary of what I have learned about the fluorescent lamps follows, please keep in mind that I do not know how safe the ballast are and should you try anything that follows on your own systems, you do so at your own risk.

From a standard, two bulb, non-electronic, P class, shop-light ballast there are 4 pairs of wires. One pair of wires (white and black) go to the outlet, another pair (yellow) go to one pair of end caps, and the other two pairs (one red pair and one blue pair) go to the other two end caps (blue to one, red to the other) in the standard setup. When using the standard setup with the standard ballast it is possible to run most if not all normal output (NO) 48" 40 watt bulbs; it will be difficult if not impossible to run two VHOs in this setup unless the ballast is no longer functioning properly. However if the end caps attached to the yellow wires are not used and the red end-cap is put on one end of a VHO and the blue on the other a VHO will operate as will a NO bulb, but it will look as intense as a VHO. Crossing the end caps of different ballasts (particularly single bulb 40 watt ballasts) can allow for a mixture of VHO and NO bulbs with fewer wires being left unused.

Watt reducing, energy saving, and electronic shop-light ballasts may not work or may work differently than standard ballasts when used on aquarium bulbs, some of these ballasts will even burn out when used on actinics. With some of the watt reducing ballasts (40 watt bulb run on 34 watt) it will be impossible to get Tritons, Blue moons, or actinics to reach their normal intensity, however one VHO can be lit in the same fashion as described for standard ballasts.

I strongly recommend starting with used fluorescent when not following the wiring diagram as there may be a decrease in bulb life, so far at GARF there has been no noticeable affect on VHOs when used in standard and watt reducing ballasts rather than VHO ballasts, but it is too soon to tell whether there is a long term affect. When using 40 watt ballasts for VHOs please take extra care in placing them away from the tank and away from flammable materials.

BE CAREFUL

Be careful when purchasing ballasts from the hardware-store, most ballasts now available are some sort of energy saving or electronic ballast. Ballasts sold as replacement ballasts are most likely one of these types and will not light Tritons actinics, or Blue Moons, standard ballasts that will light these bulbs are usually only available as complete shoplights and cost about $9. Shoplights with the standard ballasts are getting hard to find and in a few more years it may not be possible to find them at all.

Most standard ballasts that I have purchased are about 14cm in length and are fairly heavy. The length of a ballast seems to be the best way to distinguish between energy saving ballasts and standard ballasts because the energy saving ballasts are longer than the standard ballasts. Standard ballasts seem to have the following dimensions (different brands have slightly different sizes, but they are very close to these dimensions in all brands that I have seen) 14cm long, 6cm wide, and 4cm thick.

The last major chain that I was able to get shoplights with standard ballasts from was Ace Hardware, but that was a few years ago. If you find a national chain that still carries the old shoplights with standard ballasts please let LeRoy know so that a list of places to get standard ballasts can be added to this page.