What's the best way to hide ballasts?

[mibaro]

I am making some modifications to an existing canopy, and am still a novice a DIY projects.
I am going to run VHO's and NO's on a wood canopy.
I need to get a good reflector source (I heard home depot roofing department carried good reflector material).
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--My main question is when retrofitting a canopy, what is the best way to hide the ballasts?
-Most household flourescent fixtures have them hidden in the metal casing. (and they rust).
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--I've looked at several DIY sites, and am not sure if people put the ballast outside the canopy, or hide it under the reflector.
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Thanks.

Michael

[jastonataquapro]

Probably the best thing is to have an externally mounted ballast, far away from moisture should minimize early failure from such. Lying on the floor is where I see most of them :)

[afss]

I agree to remote wount them is a good idea. I would, however, not suggest you lay them on the floor. If you do have a flood of any kind you want the balasts to be some where that is hopefully dry. I would suggest under the stand with a drip loop in the coords.

Scott

[2Oceans]

Hi you could try mounting your ballasts on the back of the canopy , preferably near the end corners, put a couple strips of wood on first , then mount leaving a space between ballast & wood for cooling, this has worked for me with my VHO ballast, your ballasts are then close to your lights & out of site .

[afss]

Great idea Jeg. I forgot all about that. Thats how i had my first DIY hood set up, and it worked great.

Scott

[Dman]

I've always mounted my ballasts remotely.
My first tank they were in the stand. My second tank the MH ballasts were in the basement and the Flourescents were in a metal electrical box behind the tank.
Dman
:spin:

[mibaro]

Thanks for the ideas. just one more question...What is the maximum distance that a ballast can be from the light socket? 5 feet..10 feet..etc. Or does that depend on each individual ballast? Say if I have a Fulham VHO Workhorse 7 ballast, how far from the light socket fixtures could it be (say for 4 ft bulbs)? How about regular flourescent ballasts?
Okay, it was more than one question.
-Basically, I want to make sure that if I have the ballasts hooked up 10 feet away from the fixtures that they will work and I won't run into problems either with getting them to work.

Michael