T5's and overdriving them? Anyone?

I have heard that I can overdrive 2 24 watt t5's using a icecap ballset and I would get about 108 watts from Each t5 bulb! Thats incredible. Is this true? If it is that means I would only need 2 t5 bulbs for my 75 gal! Is there a decrease in the bulb life? Can anyone guide me as to what I will need and how much this setup will cost

thanks

 

Why would you do this when the T5s are so inexpensive as they are. I have no idea if that is possible.

Jay

 

The guys at Reef Geeks told me that it was a bad idea because it would seriousily shorten the bulbs life. Trust me I though about it, but if you have to replace the bulbs every 3 months your not going to come out ahead. True high output T-5 are bright enough anyway.

 

The other thing is that the Icecap Ballast is about 3X as expensive as most T-5HO ballast. There are

 

Sorry, a hand full of companies that make balleast in the $50 dollar range that will drive 2x54W bulbs

 

lol triple post...anyway is it overdriving or overclocking like for comps?

 

Your bulbs will shorter really fast. Not worth it

 

ya i agree...unless u r to cheap to simply upgrade ur whole lighting system instead of paying more the extra bulbs lol...

 

According to Ice Cap overdriving T5's on their ballast doesn't shorten the life due to the method they use to start the lamps and the high frequency they run the lamps at. I personally got over a year out of a set of 80 watt lamps ran on IC 660's at what Ice Cap claims was 100 watts. I measured the PAR on a couple of lamps and they were down a bit but not bad except for a couple that got hot when I wasn't running fans. I don't know if they will last as long as Ice Cap claims (18 months for the blue or actinics and 3 to 4 years for a daylight) but they will go over a year.

 

That might be true of overdriving bulbs by 20% or so, but you can't run a 24W bulb at over 100W and expect it to handle that. Their life would be SERIOUSLY shortened. Overdriving bulbs a little may be a good way to get extra light .... if your hood is already full of bulbs! It's not a miricle cure for all lighting woes. Buy the extra bulbs and you will be happier in the end. It's an expensive hobby, and those bulbs aren't even the tip of the iceberg, so bute the bullet.

Also, bulbs are less efficient and color shift when overdriven. A 50W bulb sucking up 100W is NOT as bright as a 100W bulb running at it's rated spec. What happens to the color I can't say for sure, but don't expect a 10k bulb to actually be 10k if it's being seriously overdriven.