IceCap reccomends that you only fire two HO T5 bulbs with a 430. That being said, I've heard of folks firing three of the 39 watters or four of the 24 watters on a 430 without issue but have never heard about anyone trying it with the higher wattage (54w / 80w) lamps.
? about Ice cap 660's
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IceCap reccomends that you only fire two HO T5 bulbs with a 430. That being said, I've heard of folks firing three of the 39 watters or four of the 24 watters on a 430 without issue but have never heard about anyone trying it with the higher wattage (54w / 80w) lamps.
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but Icecap's website states "One ballast can operate any combination, up to 4 lamps, with a total not exceeding 330 Watts."
The Lumenbright reflectors might not be the best solution unless you are ok with dark areas in the tank. The lumenbrights are quite focused so even hanging them high off the tank, they would have a hard time covering the 36" width of the tank. At the expense of a little PAR versus the Lumenbrights, the Lumenarcs would give you much better light dispersion and the large ones are designed to light a 36" X 36" area
They may have done some more testing, made some adjustments to the ballasts or have some new info so you might want to check with them directly (they are very good about getting back to you!). When I was discussing the use of T5 with IceCap a few years ago, they made the recommendations I posted above. Both of these ballasts were designed before T5 became the rage and was told then that T5s drive the ballasts differently than the other flourescent bulbs that you can run on these.
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Thanks for the help Mike :up:
Good luck with the new tank Chris, I'll have to break you off some of the old kfc frags for it.
Good luck with the new tank Chris, I'll have to break you off some of the old kfc frags for it.
Anytime! I checked in IceCap's RC forum and they are still giving the same advice regarding the number / wattage of HO T5 bulbs you can fire with either the 660 or 430. I wonder if they actually tested it? Might be worth doing a little experimentation to see if a 430 could handle 3 of the 54 watters since it's been shown it can handle more of the smaller (24w & 39w) bulbs than they recommend.
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