MH bulb won't work

[hagfish]

I've got a MH fixture that I bought used about a year ago. It needs a new bulb pretty bad, and I have some for another fixture that I thought would work, but they don't. It's a single ended 250 watt fixture. Here's some pics of the ballast and bulb. I circled a piece that's different on the bulb than the other bulbs I have. Maybe that will help you to tell what kind of bulb I need to buy. That's my question, what kind of bulb to put in this.

 

[chadfarmer]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=201570

 

[bkh24]

you need to find out if it is a M58 ballast. If it is it will run a 250 lamp. I have industrial ballast running both of my 250's and they fire fine. I would guess that you have the wrong bulb or the wrong type of ballast. That does not look like a normal MH bulb. I have done lighting matainence for a company locally and am fairly familiar with most MH ballast types. The bulb looks odd though. What brand?

 

[hagfish]

I don't see any ansi codes or anything on the ballast. Chad's link refers to ballasts with no codes as being electronic and running everything.

But based on the image below where the bulb says "eye" I'm thinking this is actually a Mercury Vapor ballast and I am apparently stuck with Iwasaki 6500k bulbs. My bulb doesn't say Iwasaki on it anywhere, but that's what I was told it was when I bought it.

 

[bkh24]

most mercury vapor ballast will run MH bulbs...or is it the other way around I can check on that for you with someone who knows a little more than me. Is there a capacitor with the ballast? Seems weird that there is an ignightor in the bulb and most MH bulbs start with the part number MH400 MH 250 and so on but yours is MT I would guess that is the first issue. If you need a new ballast pm me and I might be able to help you out at a reasonable price.

 

[Markk96]

Yes that is an Iwasaki bulb.

 

[hagfish]

bkh, I've actually got another ballast I could use I think. I might just buy another bulb like the one I've got too. 6500 is pretty yellow, but I've got a 10,000k next to it and I can't really tell any difference.

bkh, I also have another ballast that had shorted out or something. I came home and it was smoking. So I unplugged it and haven't touched it since. Would you know anything about repairing it? Or is it even worth it? It's an industrial ballast too, but I hadn't had any problems with bulbs lighting with it or anything.