LF 250w MH Ballast

[johanasu]

Jeff Porter donated an awesome MH/T5 light setup to our school and we installed it over our 150g soft reef. Unfortunately, one of the ballasts for the two 250w MH bulbs went out this summer.

I e-mailed Sunlight Supply and they don't make the ballast anymore, otherwise they said they would have tried to help us out.

So, does anyone have an extremely cheap extra ballast lying around? Or know if they are repairable?

Thanks!
Jonathan

This looks like what we have:
GALAXY 250W ELECTRONIC BALLAST 120/240V
http://biggrowhydro.com/electronic-ballasts/galaxy-250w-electronic-ballast-120-240v

 

[reefstew]

I have some retail store MH 250 watt fixtures & you would need to remove the ballast & install it. I could give you 1.

 

[johanasu]

If it's compatible with what we are using that would be great! When would be a good time for me to stop by and look at it? I'm pretty flexible this week as we start the school year on August 1st!

 

[reefstew]

Early afternoon tomorrow. I have 2 ship outs early & 2 in the late afternoon. You will need to wire it in & probably retro fit it.

 

[johanasu]

Cool, I'm going to post on FB and see if anyone has a plug and play solution. If not I'll see you tomorrow!

 

[johanasu]

So Chris at Discount was able to give me a replacement Galaxy Ballast, the exact same model.

I brought it to work, plugged it in, fired up the light and everything was on and working great.

Three days later when I came in, one of the MH bulbs was off again. This is not my area of expertise and I'm at somewhat of a loss. Here is a rough description of what happened. Dates aren't accurate, but give you an idea.

June 1st
Bulb A + Ballast A = Working
Bulb B + Ballast B = Working

June 15th
Bulb A + Ballast A = Working
Bulb B + Ballast B = Not Working

I guessed that Bulb B had died

June 20th
Bulb A + Ballast A = Working
New Bulb B + Ballast B = Not working
New Bulb B + Ballast A = Working

At this point I assumed Ballast B had died.

June 27th
Bulb A + New Ballast B = Working
New Bulb B + Ballast A = Working

June 31st
New Bulb B + Ballast A = Working
Bulb A + Ballast A = Working
Bulb A + New Ballast B = Not working
New Bulb B + New Ballast B = Not working

So now I'm confused. Any thoughts on troubleshooting the situation?