Help with Metal Halides and T12s

Feet4Fish · Oct 30, 2019

I got an amazing deal on a Custom metal halide T12 fixture. Halides have ice cap ballasts and T12s have ice cap drivers. Does anyone know a resource I can go to to educate myself on wiring as it talked to these lights? Appreciate any help!! Thanks!!

C. Eymann · Oct 30, 2019

soffutt said:
I got an amazing deal on a Custom metal halide T12 fixture. Halides have ice cap ballasts and T12s have ice cap drivers. Does anyone know a resource I can go to to educate myself on wiring as it talked to these lights? Appreciate any help!! Thanks!!

If the T12s are being driven by an icecap they are most likely VHOs - exp 4' bulbs are 110w vs. 40w

Is it a fixture? or retro kit? pics?

pdxmonkeyboy · Oct 30, 2019

Yeah.. what wiring questions do you have? I'm sure we can sort them out. Welcome to the dark side BTW.. lol. Or should i say the bright side!

tehmadreefer · Oct 30, 2019

soffutt said:
I got an amazing deal on a Custom metal halide T12 fixture. Halides have ice cap ballasts and T12s have ice cap drivers. Does anyone know a resource I can go to to educate myself on wiring as it talked to these lights? Appreciate any help!! Thanks!!

Best bet is to do a search for info on here on rc sing the search feature, starting about a decade back. Gonna be hard finding much info since it's quite outdated tech.

tehmadreefer · Oct 30, 2019

Or make friends with some old salts to help, lol

pdxmonkeyboy · Oct 30, 2019

Ummm.. hate to tell you but the icecap ballasts came out in 2014. They are not "outdated tech" unless they are magnetic ballasts, which i dont think they ever produced.

Feet4Fish · Oct 31, 2019

Thanks for the quick response. It is mostly assembled.wired right now, but my plan was to dissemble it, clean it and finish the aluminum frame. Have been told good things about the T12's, but not sure. Could always replace with LED Strips down the road. Will be going on a 650 gallon 44" deep tank.

pdxmonkeyboy · Oct 31, 2019

Flippin sweet dude!!

If it were me, i would ditch the t12 and get t5. They are waaaay more efficient and put off a ton more light. Plus i dont know of many sources for t12 reef lights.

You can buy the waterproof end caps...https://www.aquacave.com/t5-waterproof-socket-end-cap-1ct.html?fee=1&fep=709&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6eTtBRDdARIsANZWjYYclhjcoU06r60uKtQ52MIaEnf4kqYvYuEabrt-8oGQ2ehljM0M-uYaAkisEALw_wcB

Then pick up a t5ho ballasts. There are like $15 a pop. If that is 8 feet you are going to have to do double 4 foot on each side. Wiring is stupid easy. One pin red, the other black.

C. Eymann · Oct 31, 2019

I'd personally keep the VHOs if you can find bulbs.

you will have to change out ballast otherwise you will be overdriving the T5s, need fans on end of the bulbs and have to change bulbs every 4 mo.

Feet4Fish · Oct 31, 2019

Thanks @pdxmonkeyboy ! The fixture is 6 ft, so it would be 6 ft bulbs. Will look into info for DIY T5 lighting!

pdxmonkeyboy said:
Flippin sweet dude!!

If it were me, i would ditch the t12 and get t5. They are waaaay more efficient and put off a ton more light. Plus i dont know of many sources for t12 reef lights.

You can buy the waterproof end caps...https://www.aquacave.com/t5-waterproof-socket-end-cap-1ct.html?fee=1&fep=709&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6eTtBRDdARIsANZWjYYclhjcoU06r60uKtQ52MIaEnf4kqYvYuEabrt-8oGQ2ehljM0M-uYaAkisEALw_wcB

Then pick up a t5ho ballasts. There are like $15 a pop. If that is 8 feet you are going to have to do double 4 foot on each side. Wiring is stupid easy. One pin red, the other black.

Feet4Fish · Oct 31, 2019

Do you mean personally you wold keep the current T12s? I have found a couple sources for 6ft bulbs.

C. Eymann said:
I'd personally keep the VHOs if you can find bulbs.

you will have to change out ballast otherwise you will be overdriving the T5s, need fans on end of the bulbs and have to change bulbs every 4 mo.

C. Eymann · Oct 31, 2019

soffutt said:
Do you mean personally you wold keep the current T12s? I have found a couple sources for 6ft bulbs.

Personally yes, but you will find that to be opinionated.

Will Wohlers · Oct 31, 2019

Ohhh boy you're the lucky guy that bought vetts lighting. Wanted that thing myself for an 8ft prop tank. Please keep me threads on this build. I want to see what this thing will do. I would also keep it vho. It's literally a proven tried and true workhorse setup. Lucky dog. My wife thought it would pull you much off our solar system or I would have snagged it in a heartbeat.

pdxmonkeyboy · Oct 31, 2019

Here is something to think about...

T5ho put out twice as much light for only 14watts more power. Dont know how the t12 vho stacks up but i highly doubt they put off more light than a t5ho. Either way its all good

Feet4Fish · Oct 31, 2019

Yes, picked it up from @vetteguy53081 at RAP Chicago. Awesome guy! Hopefully over next few weeks I can get it cleaned up and fired up!

Bpb · Oct 31, 2019

Ah so YOURE the one that picked up that light setup finally. That’s a monster of a system. I’m jealous. Keep the vho’s. They’ll look amazing.

C. Eymann · Oct 31, 2019

pdxmonkeyboy said:
Here is something to think about...

T5ho put out twice as much light for only 14watts more power. Dont know how the t12 vho stacks up but i highly doubt they put off more light than a t5ho. Either way its all good

4ft T5s use 54w and yes they are more efficient, but a 4ft VHO is 110w, so double the wattage of a T5 however not as efficient.

On their own, I'm suspecting VHO will blow the T5 out of the water, HOWEVER, when you factor in the reflectors that are available for T5 vs T12, things change a bit, a T5 in a high quality polished parabolic reflector might kick out more PAR than a standard internally reflected VHO ??
Might have to do some digging to see if they ever made a comparison?

If OP decides to go t5, changes to end caps and possibly using a different ballast might be necessary. Like I mentioned, you can overdrive T5s with a VHO ballast, but you need fans on each end of the bulb and bulb life expectancy is halved.

Feet4Fish · Oct 31, 2019

Thanks everyone. Over the next couple weeks my goal is to get the fixture cleaned up and fired up. If I can find a reliable source for T12 bulbs for the near future I will probably just start there And see how things go. Converting to T5 down the line seems simple enough and not cost prohibitive. Being a DIY type set up the abundance of wiring is on the surface a bit overwhelming coming from a world of neat and today LED fixtures. But as it is already all assembled I can easily dissemble is for cleaning and refinishing of the aluminum fixture. Provided I document the disassembly well, putting it all back to get her shouldn’t be tough. Frankly from my research given the water depth I am working with I think there really isn’t a much better option than the halides which was key in this decision. LEDS that can be effective at this depth would run into the thousands. The actinic/UV supplementation seems to have multiple viable options. Will post updates as I get things figured out! This will be an awesome learning experience for me!

DuckSlayer627 · Oct 31, 2019

If you can find the 6ft. T-12 VHO's from URI/URL they have a built in reflector made inside the bulb. I use this same setup on my tank but the 4ft. version. 400wt Haildes w/Icecap and 4ft. VHO's w/ Icecap. If you need wiring info. contact CoralVue, they are the distributor for Ice Cap.