T5 ballast

[polarbear]

Does anyone know if a ballast from lowes or homedepot would be good to use on a 4 build T5 fixture? I have 2 workhorse 7 ballast now running 4 lights each and one just went out. Please help.

[FireWater]

They should work.

[allan]

Make sure the ballast pushes the wattage needed for the bulbs. Else they will be under powered.

On the flip side, a couple days with no lights won't impact your coral much.

[polarbear]

Thanks to both of you. I have decided to order the workhorse ballast since I have had good luck with the ones I have. They are probably about 3 years old. I had them for a year and the person I got them from had them about 2 years.

Allen, I have 3 lights going and one t12 super actinic. Do you think this will get me to Friday since it will take until then to get the lights shipped to me?

[FireWater]

You have 3 lights and an actinic on one workhorse? Was it always like that or did you just do that?
What corals do you have in the tank? Sps? They should be ok, but you might notice some color loss.

[polarbear]

No I have a ballast that runs the actinic and 2 workhorse ballast that run the 8 T5. They each run 4 which is what they are rated for. Each one can hold 220 watts and the told watts on each ballast is 216.