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    splitting wattage of 400W ballast?

    Ballast question. I have a pulse start 400Watt ballast that I am going to retro-fit sockets into a Hood with. I only have a 55Gal reef tank. My question is can I add wiring to the ballast so I can split the wattage between two mogul sockets for say 2x 125Watt bulbs? With my PC lights (4x 55W) this would give me a total of 470 watts and give me 8.5 watts per gal. Will it work to split the wattage? Should I go with 2x 100watt bulbs instead? this would give me 7.5wpg. I have some softees, anemones and plan to add some sps and a clam.

    Please help

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    Hi ltjguy, Welcome to Reefland!

    You cannot split the wattage from a single ballast to burn 2 bulbs, it simply doesn't work that way. If you want to burn 2 metal halide bulbs, you need 2 seperate ballasts (or 2 ballasts inside of 1 casing). There is no way around it.
    Scott Z.
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  3. #3
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    Question splitting ballast wattage

    Why is this?
    So, if I can't split the watts can I use a lower wattage bulb? I know you can with regular light fixtures. Or,are metal halides just different all together and you can't use a 250watt bulb with the 400watt ballast?
    Thanks for the quick reply
    ltjguy


 

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