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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

DIY T5 24w light

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20 Feb 2015 16:12 - 20 Feb 2015 16:14 #1 by bart (Bart Korfanty)
HI
This shows how u can easily make DIY T5 light for your tank.
In this example i used 24w T5 bulb

Materials
1. 2x T5 waterproof aquarium end caps with cables
2. 1x energy saving fluorescent bulb with wattage output close to 24watt
3. 1x power supply cable with plug
4. 6x electrical connectors




The energy saving bulbs contain inside electronic ballast which is miniaturized version of the more classic rectangular ones. I used larger bulb here which output is 23watt. That's close enough to be able to power 1 T5 24w bulb.
First the ballast needs to be extracted carefully, without damaging it. Hack saw and a bit of patience works wonders ;)




After opening the bulb u can see that the small wires going to the bulb's spiral fluorescent tube are attached to small pins. Cut all the wires and clean the pins as shown on the picture

Now all u need to do is connect the end caps to the pins. 1 cable to each pin. And connect the mains to 2 wires which were connected to your bulb base. See the photo below



And there u go



Of course the exposed mini ballast should be safely enclosed in something insulating from electricity. Electrical junction box is good idea

Also
This is electricity we are playing with here so be advised in case of undertaking this project - u are doing it on your own responsibility!!
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Last edit: 20 Feb 2015 16:14 by bart (Bart Korfanty).

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21 Feb 2015 11:23 #2 by JustinK (Justin Kelly)
Hi Bart,
Good post.
Is there enough of the pins exposed to just cut the wires and be able to connect on ?
As its for same wattage then heat is no issue ?
I'm thinking of using this similar idea to replace a dead Juwel ballast.

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21 Feb 2015 16:31 #3 by bart (Bart Korfanty)
This should work as replacement. Just connect the wires from end caps to the pins, there is 4 pins and enough space. Heat is not an issue as long as u match the wattage.

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