New Ballast Problem

[jdsabin1]

Guys,

I got my new dual 175 watt ballast, spliced my old connectors to the pendants off and put the new connectors on (soldered carefully, the whole nine yards). Now when I go to turn the pendants on (bell pendants), the lights do go on for about 30 seconds then flicker and go off or simply go out period. I have tried two different bulbs and I get the same thing. I also get this problem on either side I plug the ballast into.

Help!

 

[Jeremy B.]

Hi,

I am assuming you are running XM's or AB/Ushio 10k on the ballasts. If this is the case it is pretty common for them not to light like this. It is nothing more than burn in issue. Turn the ballast on as you normally would. If the lamps light, great. If they do not come on, or come on and go out, leave the ballasts on, don't mess with anything. The lamps should refire eventually. If nothing happens within 5 or 6 hours let me know, but they should come on within that time and everything will be ok.

Jeremy

 

[ApolloDog]

This may not be your situation since I don't know what type of ballast or bulb you have, but I'll explain just in case.

I got a dual 250W PFO ballast, with 1 10K Ushio bulb, and 1 10K AB bulb ( shipped accidentally, decided to keep it anyways). When I first started the tank, I would just run the bulb for a few minutes or less, just to test them, nothing in the tank yet. The AB bulb, on some occasions, would turn on, then about 1 minute or less later, it would shut off. When I called the store I got it from, they mentioned that the AB bulbs sometimes had problems if you didn't have the pulse start ballast, which I did not have. He said that if I get it to stay on again, make sure to leave it on for at least a few hours, then it should be ok. Well it did, and I did, and I haven't had any problems since.

Hope this is of some use to you.
Good luck

 

[jdsabin1]

Thanks for the fast replies . I have just turned them both on again (they both stayed on for a minute or so and then they turned off again). I will leave the ballast on for the next five hours or so and see what happens. Should I be checking anything to make sure I am not frying anything during this time or? The pendants and the bulbs themselves that I have in there right now (Ushio 10K's) are not new so don't know if that makes any difference. The ballast isn't hot, I haven't tripped any breakers, the cords don't feel hot in any way.

Should they be firing on at some point over the next five hours? This is all so new to me and when the bulbs don't light I just feel nervous like I am going to burn something up or ruin something.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks again.....

 

[jdsabin1]

UPDATE - 6:55p!

UPDATE - 6:55p!

The lights have been on 10 minutes. One of the pendants is now burning BRIGHT! The other one (with either bulb in it) isn't. I can occasionally see a glimmer of light trying to come from that bulb that is struggling.

Question: Should I put in my new XM 20K bulbs to do this burn in? I don't want to have to go through this all over again if this happens with new bulbs.

Any input appreciated!

 

[ApolloDog]

You should put the new bulbs in if you aren't going to use the others, they might have to go through the "burn in" stage.

Strange why the other bulbs had the problem though, since you said they were used, hmmm...

 

[Jeremy B.]

Just curious if the lamps ended up burning to the new ballast ok?

 

[jdsabin1]

Thanks for the follow up . I put in the new XM bulbs last night after I decided I needed to burn those in since those were going to be the bulbs I'm using anyway. Both bulbs fired up soon after I turned them on (a little flicker but nothing major). The pendant that was struggling with the other 10k bulb was a little slower to get up to speed but within 10 minutes or so both appeared to be the same brightness and were working fine. I left them on for an hour or so and they were doing fine and then I turned them off. I plan on firing them up today at noon so if my fish and corals don't melt I'll report on how they are doing in a few hours .

Here's to MH goodness!