Congratulations on your find. The good news it that it was a great find. The not so good part is that you may have scored the tombstones ($1.50-$3.00 a pair) and possibly the reflector (do you have an 8' tank or are you going to cut it in half?) And some of the tombstones are riveted in and otherwise nearly useless. Not quite the blue bird of happiness today am I... The number following the T is the diameter in 1/8 inch. So a T12 is 1.5" diameter and the T8 is 1". You might notice that the T12 is 40W and the T8 is 32W but the T8 produces more light (in lumens). Unless the ballast clearly says "electronic" and looks to be nearly new I would chuck it (or auction). I bought a 4X 4' electronic ballast from the local orange big box for ~$18. With this ballast you get more light from less energy without flicker or hum. You should also replace the bulbs as you want the right color and they do age. (I have 4X 4500K <~$3 for two> and 1X 55W 10,000K) which give a nice color. I use a particularly large novelty chopstick to hold my canopy open. There are hinge kits/strut though. If you are ever in a wrecking yard try and get the struts from a hatchback that are ~10" long as they work too... So great find overall and feel free to hurl things at the next meeting for spoiling your plans. -Paul On Thu, 7 Apr 2005, Susan Welenofsky wrote:
Some building was remolding, and I got an 8' light fixture out of the trash. It has a "rapid start ballast" for four 4' lights. This isn't the same as an "electronic" ballast, is it? I think the "tombstones" are for T-10 or T-8 bulbs. (Why is it called "T", tombstone? What does 12, 10, and 8 mean?) Also, I was wondering if there was some kind of shock or strut or whatever to make life easier for when I open the lid of the oak canopy top. It weighs a ton, and it doesn't stay open, so I have to prop something in there. I worked on a 300 gallon at a CWU, and they had something for their canopy lid, maybe like what a screen door has, and it closed slowly. I can't remember how it stayed open. Susan _______________________________________________ GSAS-Member mailing list GSAS-Member@thekrib.com http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-member
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