Workhorse 7 Wiring Help. (1 Viewer)

[toefu]

I'm trying to wire my workhorse 7 for 2x110watt VHO. For some strange reason, it does not seem as bright as i believe it should. My 2x250watt 10k MH's just completely drown them out and you can't even notice the actinic at all. Mh's are always 6 inches above surface water and no actinic at all.

I took the 2 out of 4 red wires and merged them into 1 wire.
Took the other 2 and merged into 1 wire.

connected each of these wires to 1 end of each VHO
took the single yellow wire and split into 2 wires, connected each splitted end to the other ends of the vho bulbs. They do fire up, but just don't seem too bright.

I know reef alot uses workhorse 7 as well as other marshers, so just seeing if i did it right or not.

 

[Guest]

I have the same setup and noticed the same thing - the actinics look awesome when they are the only lights on, but when the halides come on they just drown them out.

I've read that the Workhorse 7 ballast doesn't put out a true 220w, so we are probably underdriving the bulbs. What I am thinking about doing is get another Workhorse 7 and wire 1 ballast to each bulb. If that doesn't increase the light output substantially, then I could just wire 4 bulbs to the 2 ballasts which would definitely give me more light (but it's a really tight squeeze to get 2 more bulbs in there).

 

[Guest]

I emailed fulham asking about that and they said the WH7 could only run one 110w VHO. If you wire them for two they will be running like an HO. You can however run 4 T5 54w bulbs just fine. I believe to wire the VHO you connect three of the red wires to one end and the yellow to the other, and put a cap on the fourth wire.

 

[AggieBrandon]

how I run mine is two reds into left endcap for one bulb, the other two reds into the other left endcap for second bulb, then run two yellows from each opposite endcap and join all yellows together and connect to single yellow. I dont know if it helps the brightness at all but when the actinics are on the blue will still be added to the lighting scheme so you will have to pass judgement on if it is what you want or not. If not maybe try a higher Kelvin bulb maybe 14K? I am just guessing here but I squeezed 4 48" vho bulbs into my 75 gallon canopy with 2 metal halides so I will see what happens when I finally get this thing running lol.

Brandon

 

[Guest]

here is the email I got from Fulham

Dear JR,
The WH7 will only power one VHO (wiring #12) at a time, 3 X F54T5HO or 4 X F54T5HO (wiring #7) (see attached)

Some people have attempted to operate two lamps wiring two red lead to each lamp with the yellow lamp in common, this will only provide enough lamp current to operate the lamps at about ½ light level. Some people use wiring diagram #11, but it defeats the purpose of using the VHO lamps as this method only provides the lamps with around 800mA and operates the VHO like a HO lamp.

Forseeable Problems ???
Less light output
Short lamp life

wiring#12
http://www.mcafoose.org/images/wire12.gif
wiring #7
http://www.mcafoose.org/images/wire07.gif

If I understand this right you could run a VHO with three of the reds and a T5 with the fourth red. at least you can get two bulbs in that way.

 

[Guest]

i hope this is not right i just bought 4, 2 for me to run 2 95w vho's on one and 2 for my brother to run 2 55w pc. just email fulham to see what they say but alot of good this will do me. wanted to get them up and going tommarrow.

 

[Guest]

I run 2 VHO 95watts on mine, they work just fine.

 

[Guest]

I ordered a new Workhorse 7 and should receive it Tuesday. Next weekend, I'm going to rewire my lights to use 1 110w VHO per ballast.

I'll let you know if it makes a big difference.