Is my VHO ballast working?

[linuxguru]

Hello everyone,

On one of my 55 gal tanks, a year ago when I purchased it . it came as a unit with a stand and a dual bulb 48" Normal Output flouerscent light hood. Recently I purchased a VHO ballast rated for up to 220 watts and did a little DIY job on my light hood. I took out the NO ballast and replaced and rewired it with the VHO that I purchased along with 2 110 watt white actinic bulbs.

My concern is that my tank does not look any brighter than when I was using the NO bulbs, and when I was doing the DIY job, I wanted to see if the NO ballast would light up the VHO bulbs and it did, so now I am confused. How do I know I am truly getting 220 watts out of my bulbs, or if the VHO ballast I purchased(which was inexpensive from HelloLights) even though it is rated for a total of 220 watts is really putting out this much power?

Any explanations appreciated.

[charlie]

In my experience, the actinic white vho's, almost looked pink in my tanks. Do you have access to any vho daylite bulbs?
You may want to check your wiring again, but i'm gonna bet it is the color of the bulbs.
I definitly wouldn't try to drive these vho's with a normal output ballast.

[linuxguru]

I have both URI 03 Actinic, and Actinic White. The actinic white looks more like an orange than a pink in my tank, I have a blue background but still more orange. The wiring is fine, everything was color coded so I doubt I made a wrong connection. I am just a little concerned for the fact that it was an relatively inexpensive ARO ballast from hellolights. Im probably gonna pull out the ohm meter/circuit tester and find out, I guess that is all I can do........

[charlie]

I have both URI 03 Actinic, and Actinic White. The actinic white looks more like an orange than a pink in my tank, I have a blue background but still more orange. The wiring is fine, everything was color coded so I doubt I made a wrong connection. I am just a little concerned for the fact that it was an relatively inexpensive ARO ballast from hellolights. Im probably gonna pull out the ohm meter/circuit tester and find out, I guess that is all I can do........

OK, I'll go along with the orange look.
Check it out and keep us updated.

[kevinpo]

A NO ballast (that is rated for 2 -40W bulbs) will not fire 2 - 110W VHO bulbs (I've tried it and the ends of the bulbs just flicker). A HO ballast that is rated for 2 - 72" bulbs will fire 2 - 110W bulbs. URI makes NO and VHO bulbs. Be sure to check that it says VHO on the ends of the bulbs. If the ballast you bought fires the bulbs and the bulbs have VHO printed on them then you are getting more light than NO bulbs.

HTH,
Kevin