funkyman
New member
Maybe someone can help me out here.
My halides are acting up. It's been going on for a few months now. Here are the basic details:
(2) x 250 watt retro system
Dual PFO 250 watt ballast
250 watt 14K Hamilton SE bulbs
Controlled by a Reef Keeper (the first model)
I've already replaced the ballast (with identical model). Luckily I hung on to my first ballast, as there apparently wasn't anything wrong with it. I bought the first ballast used, and the second ballast is used as well.
I have no actinic supplementation, so to simulate some dusk to dawn action and avoid slamming the tank with all 500 watts at once, I have the right hand bulb fire up at 11:00 AM, and the left hand bulb coming on an hour later.
The right hand bulb (the first one to come on) is where I've been having a problem. Most of the time, it will flicker very rapidly at startup.....and then shut off. When it refires, it will usually stay on. "Sometimes" in the evening, it will repeat this problem.
I haven't noticed a problem with the left hand bulb.
I wrote it off as my imagination, but I've also noticed the tank looking dim (both sides). This observation was magnified when witnessing the flicker problem, as when this is going on, that end of the tank is significantly brighter then the left hand side.
This is leaving me to belive I'm not getting the performance out of my lighting that I should (for whatever reason).
Any insight as to what might be going wrong?
My halides are acting up. It's been going on for a few months now. Here are the basic details:
(2) x 250 watt retro system
Dual PFO 250 watt ballast
250 watt 14K Hamilton SE bulbs
Controlled by a Reef Keeper (the first model)
I've already replaced the ballast (with identical model). Luckily I hung on to my first ballast, as there apparently wasn't anything wrong with it. I bought the first ballast used, and the second ballast is used as well.
I have no actinic supplementation, so to simulate some dusk to dawn action and avoid slamming the tank with all 500 watts at once, I have the right hand bulb fire up at 11:00 AM, and the left hand bulb coming on an hour later.
The right hand bulb (the first one to come on) is where I've been having a problem. Most of the time, it will flicker very rapidly at startup.....and then shut off. When it refires, it will usually stay on. "Sometimes" in the evening, it will repeat this problem.
I haven't noticed a problem with the left hand bulb.
I wrote it off as my imagination, but I've also noticed the tank looking dim (both sides). This observation was magnified when witnessing the flicker problem, as when this is going on, that end of the tank is significantly brighter then the left hand side.
This is leaving me to belive I'm not getting the performance out of my lighting that I should (for whatever reason).
Any insight as to what might be going wrong?
