VHO lighting problem

G

goinbroke

I walked in the door yesterday and my lights were out on my tank. I have a Icecap 660 ballast running 4x110 watt 48" bulbs on my 75 gallon. I checked the fuse and it was blown. On the way home from work today I picked up some new fuses and they are blowing immediatly without the lights coming on.

Has anyone had issues like this before? Would a bad bulb cause this to happen?

I am about to take down my canopy to make sure everything is connected properly.

Thanks for any help.
 
also may want to post this in their forum on RC they answer pretty quickly and have great customer service.
 
A loose or disconnected wire will not cause a fuse to blow, a loose shorted wires will. Disconnect an end cap off of each bulb and see if it blows fuses, if not put those back on then repeat for the other end. It could also be the ballast.

Cheers!
 
I am taking it apart now. One problem I have is that I only have 3 fuses left, so I will need to make a run before the stores close.

I thought I read at some point that the wiring is such that if one bulb is missing then none of the bulbs will work.
 
This check is to see if the wires are shorted or not, if they are shorted then the fuse will still blow, if not shorted the fuse won't blow and of course the lights won't come on either. Sorry if I didn't explain that the first time. Most of the ballast wiring I have seen makes it possible for one light to blow, (which is an open circuit) and still aloow additional lights to function. The Icecap ballast may be different but not sure how they would be.

Cheers!
 
I think my ballast is bad. I took it apart and there are a couple of burn marks on the circuit board and not too mention that it smells burnt.

Anyone have a VHO ballast for sell? I have some old PC lighting that I can rig for now.
 
Brian,

Send it to IceCap for repair. At the worst the price will be about 1/2 what you can get it for anywhere else. They normally turn them around in a couple of days, so if you box it up and send it immediately, you could get it back quickly. It could be a lot cheaper than that though depending on what they have to replace. JMO

Doug
 
@goinbroke wrote:
THanks Doug said:
Keep in mind that sometimes company's will consider the warranty void if you open up items. Was there a little sticker across the seam, if so and it's compromised then it could go either way. That being said... I have heard that Icecap is usually more than fair as far as standing by their product, there should not be a problem.

Cheers!
Click to expand...
 
When rewiring your lights, make sure you have a drip loop before the wires go into the ballast. That way if there is water coming down the lines, it'll drip off the wires then into the ballast.

GL!
 
I had the exact same thing happen. When you call them they will know what the problem is as soon as you tell them what is happening. I think it cost about $60 to fix it, and they have a 1-2 day turnaround. They were very nice and easy to deal with. Got it back working perfectly.
 
I noticed on their website the cost is $65 and I plan on sending it in next week. Luckly I had a couple of old PC ballast and bulbs that I was able to hook up and they are buying be some time. My corals are actually doing pretty well under them although the color of the light is horrible without any actinics.
 
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