t5 lighting - fried

O

orchidsnfish

I took the reflector out of my new fixture from fishneedit.com and it has no ballast? Does that make any sense to anybody? There is just no where one could be! It's 4 X 39W. I have an icecap 660 that I am not using that I was thinking about using to overdrive the bulbs, but not sure if that is feasible since I am not upgrading ballasts...there isn't one to begin with.

Anyone have a clue? Is using the 660 on this fixture feasible at all?

Thanks
Angela




[ title edited by Marc ]
 
Ah. Found them...just took a little work with a knife. Sooo...It's gettting and IceCap 660 instead of whatever this ballast is supposed to represent!

I did my part!

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And the elusive "ballast"

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Jeff's turn to play. He thinks it's time to play Madden 09....me think different!

angela
 
@kuyatwo wrote:
do they come with individual reflectors..... said:
From her pics it looks like they don't. I would buy one today if they did.

I wonder if you could buy some good reflectors and install in the hood. Looks like a nice hood.
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@orchidsnfish wrote:
[quote="If ya want to get rid of those ballast said:
You can have them if the trash hasn't went out yet. If you want to pay shipping they are free. I threw them away. Didn't think anyone would want them."]

I'll pay the shipping, just lmk how much.....if you still have them around.

Cheers,
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Back to your original query, you should be able to use the icecap but your bulb life will drop by about 30% by overdriving them.
 
:D They should be still around. You can have them. I don't want them. If I wanted to ever use them I dont think I would know how to hook them back up. There are 4 of them. One for each bulb.
 
@orchidsnfish wrote:
:D They should be still around. You can have them. I don't want them. If I wanted to ever use them I dont think I would know how to hook them back up. There are 4 of them. One for each bulb. said:
PM sent.. :)
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I wonder if there would be room for a fan in the unit. At the price point, I doubt there is one included in these units. Keep us informed on how the retro goes.

Thanks
 
@orchidsnfish wrote:
bimmerzs what are your plans with the ballasts? Just curious...They should be there tomorrow. said:
I switched back to reeflux 10K's for the faster growth over the 12K's. The 10K's kinda have a washed out look to me so I'm going to switch over from the vho's actinic to T5's. I have (2)giesemann T5 actinic + and (2) giesemann pure actinics bulbs to help balance out the 10K's and hopefully give a serious pop to the colors. I not gonna add reflectors since it will create shadow's since these will be below the MH's, they are more for look than par. It will also allow me to swap in other colors like the fiji purple or pro color bulb. :) Thanks again for the ballast. :D

Cheers,
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Well bad news. I got the aqua medic bulbs yesterday and one of the bulbs wouldn't work. Wasn't physically damaged, just didn't fire...SOOO I called hellolights this morning and they told me to move it to a different location and basically "mess with it" to see if I could get it to work. Put the bad bulb back in and turned the lights on. IceCap made a sizzling sound and now NONE of the lights will work. I think the IceCap is fried. It was on and working fine, I took the good bulb out, put the bad one in, and sizzle, now nothing works. I don't think it's likely that just a bad bulb would fry my ballast, but I also don't understand why it was fine until this bulb....

Grrr...maybe the IceCap just blew a fuse or something. The ballast is like new so I dont think there could be anything wrong with it.

Any ideas?

Is this fuse blown? I can only tell if it's actually burned in half. :? It's not in half, but it's like a big wire inside and little wire around that. The little wire is burned in half or either thats how it is supposed to look.

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That fuse most definitely looks blown to me. A good fuse should look clean with no soot marks anywhere inside.

If you have a voltmeter, you can confirm by switching the meter to "ohms" mode and touching the test leads to either end of the fuse.

But I'm pretty sure that fuse is blown.

Having said this, the fuse blew for a reason. Before you replace the fuse, make sure you address what you think caused it to blow in the first place. There might a short somewhere that caused it.
 
Well looks like the ballast is toast. It is blowing fuses even without the lights attached to it. I'm telling you this freaking anemone tank is cursed. Only positive thing I can say is icecap will fix the ballast free. Not sure I'm even going to bother as I have had it with t5's. I have spent about $200 on bulbs in the last week, killed an icecap, broke 2 bulbs by stepping on them, etc. Can I scream now???
 
@orchidsnfish wrote:
Well looks like the ballast is toast. It is blowing fuses even without the lights attached to it. I'm telling you this freaking anemone tank is cursed. Only positive thing I can say is icecap will fix the ballast free. Not sure I'm even going to bother as I have had it with t5's. I have spent about $200 on bulbs in the last week said:
Is it possible to re-wire in your old fixture ballast in the meantime? Your tank won't get the same overdriven PAR loving, but it should hold out until the fedex guy shows up with your repaired ballast.

I'm sorry to hear that you've had so many problems with this setup. I sincerely hope that your nem tank works out long term. Stick with it, you have a beautiful setup and it's going to be a dream when it's done.

Then someday we can pay a premium for "Paris" aquacultured RBTA right? :wink:
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