Bad ballest ?

[Angela Short]

I unplugged my VHO set up to put the corals in the tank Saturday night and went ahead and wipped the salt creep off the bulbs while it was off. Put it back on tonight and nothing. It didn't fizzel, crack, pop, nothing. Just dead. It has a quick disconnect and I jiggled it a ton, wiggled all the lights and connections, nothing. I left the ballest plugged into the timmer turned on and it went through a cycle with the bulbs not connected ( I didn't get to putting the VHO's back on till the today But did have a PC strip over the tank yesterday) Is there any fuses I can check or does a ballest just burn out and you are screwed? Its an ARO 4 bulb ballest if that helps. I need something better than PC's over the stuff in my holding tank!! .
Thanks!!

 

[Pickupman66]

Angela, I accidentally flipped the swpth on my aro ballast and had to wait like 10 mins or more before it would come back on.

 

[Angela Short]

I keep checking it to see if it will fire every hour or so. I thought I may have got the encap wet but I only used a wash rag so it couldn't have got real wet. Hopefully it will fire in the morning, if not I will be moving some coral over to the Tulip anemonie death trap!

 

[Angela Short]

Whats a "swpth" A typo?

 

[eyebedam]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11657213#post11657213 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Angela Short
Whats a "swpth" A typo?

switch maybe?

 

[KAiNE]

I have the same ballast and it has done the same thing to me before.
What i found was that i turned the bulbs or caused pressure side to side that spread the end caps away from the bulbs.

Have you unscrewed the endcaps and checked how secure the bulbs are?

 

[gobyholic]

angela what type ballast are they?? if its icecap it has a fuse in it which has been known to blow. also mine had to be grounded out if you need a ballast to check your lines i have a back up you can use. your lines could have wiggled loose just enough that minimal contact is being made.

bob

 

[Angela Short]

Great news is they fired tonight. Not this morning when I tried but tonight I thought what the heck and tried one more time and walla. I must have got them slightly wet washing them or just like mentioned, they just needed wiggling a little more. I would have thought if they were damp they would have crackled or popped or something but I am just glad they are working. So are the fraggs.

 

[Angela Short]

Also, Thanks for the offer goby. I have a spare VHO but its wired for a 2 bulb set up which would have been a pain to rewire the hood for the other ballest! Especially as lazy as I am getting things done latley!

 

[Mikeyjer]

Samething happen to me not long ago....I had to wiggle that darn thing for like 30 min before getting it to work....I am NOT touching it again unless I have to.....lol.......