The wife has purchased a somewhat huge fishtank, which requires between 2 and 4 80w T5 tubes. We wont know exactly until we get it setup, but we think it will probably need 3.
On her existing tank, instead of buying an expensive aquarium lighting unit I bought a Philips HF electronic ballast and some waterproof lamp end fittings to run the 2 x 39w T5 lamps it uses. This has worked flawlessly bar one minor issue, in that the lamps are linked together in such a way as if one lamp fails neither light up.
On her new tank we're going to do the same thing, and i've found a very cheap Tridonic ballast on ebay which will run 2 80w T5 lamps:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tridonic-...975?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item565f78e91f
What i'm trying to figure out, is if i buy two of these ballasts, can i configure one of them to run one lamp, while leaving me the option of connecting up a second one should we need all four? I'm trying to avoid the scenario where i order a 2x80 and a 1x80 ballast and then she decides it actually needs four lamps!
The datasheet for the Tridonic ballast appears to show both lamps wired independently back to the ballast unlike my existing Philips ballast but doesnt mention what happens with only one lamp fitted:
http://www.tridonic.com/es/download/data_sheets/DS_PCA_T5_ECO_lp_HO_en.pdf
Any thoughts?
On her existing tank, instead of buying an expensive aquarium lighting unit I bought a Philips HF electronic ballast and some waterproof lamp end fittings to run the 2 x 39w T5 lamps it uses. This has worked flawlessly bar one minor issue, in that the lamps are linked together in such a way as if one lamp fails neither light up.
On her new tank we're going to do the same thing, and i've found a very cheap Tridonic ballast on ebay which will run 2 80w T5 lamps:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tridonic-...975?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item565f78e91f
What i'm trying to figure out, is if i buy two of these ballasts, can i configure one of them to run one lamp, while leaving me the option of connecting up a second one should we need all four? I'm trying to avoid the scenario where i order a 2x80 and a 1x80 ballast and then she decides it actually needs four lamps!
The datasheet for the Tridonic ballast appears to show both lamps wired independently back to the ballast unlike my existing Philips ballast but doesnt mention what happens with only one lamp fitted:
http://www.tridonic.com/es/download/data_sheets/DS_PCA_T5_ECO_lp_HO_en.pdf
Any thoughts?
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