Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just finished some of these for the enclosures I plan to start building tomorrow. This ballast is 18w, tube light 30in, 7%UVB. It cost me under 15 bucks to make, 17 bucks for dual outputs. Not including the reflector material. I already had it. If you know how much a fixture of this kind goes for, then you know this is really cheap in price.

Get the heck out of here. What is the metal housing? Did you bend it yourself?
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Mark

The reflector is made from rigid tubing used for aquariums and film reflector I got from a hydroponic shop a while back. I could of used heat/reflector tape if I didn't have the film... the film is more reflective though. The ballast housing is a plastic project box.

How 'bout some instructions? That is insanely cheap . . . I'd love to be able to do something similar!

thanks,
Ronnie Nocera

Get all your supplies from your local electronic surplus store. You can try Radio Shack, but you'll pay more and they're not well stocked. I got my stuff from All Electronics, because they're cheap, they're local and I get a price break, sometimes.
The project is simple to do. Just use common sense when dealing with wiring. Get a pack of 18w self ballasted coil fluorescent bulbs, if you want to make more than one plus it's much cheaper this way. You can also get a higher wattage bulb if you want to power a T8 bulb, just match the wattage with bulb you want to power. Basically you're just taking the electronics/board of the bulb and carefully laying it out in a project box. Pay attention to the way the original bulb was wired, you'll rewired it the same way. Solder 22-18gauge electrical wire for the lights on the light side contacts/wires of the board. You'll have a total of four wires. Use heatshrink tube to wrap the lighting wires by their respective pairs... this is done simply for looks. Then connect these wires to the T5 or T8 light holders. Next, solder a 18awg household electrical cord for the power on the input side of the board. To prevent pull damage to the wires and cord connections, use strainers or simply make knots to the wires/cord inside and outside of the project box to make a strainer. Make some ventilation holes to the enclosure. One more thing, I had to replace the original capacitor for a shorter one (with the same specs of the original one)to be able to fit the electronic board in the enclosure. That's all to it! I hope it makes sense to ya'll.