Hello Electrical/Lighting Geniuses!

[christyf5]

Hey guys,

So a couple of weeks ago I noticed that my bulbs seemed dimmer somehow. They are still bright enough to fry your retinas if you look directly at them but the tank just seems, I dunno, dim. I got ahold of some old bulbs (younger than the ones I have now) and tried those out. They were noticeably brighter to look at (superfried retinas vs regular fried :razz:) and everything was fine. That was monday. Today the bulbs are back to dim. I am wondering if somehow I have fried the ballasts or capacitors (?). The setup is H37 bare ballasts wired to plastic thingys which I think I was told were capacitors in a aluminum box. The box gets pretty hot so I keep the lid open.

Anyway, I did have a problem before with only one of the bulbs appearing noticeably dimmer, we discussed nipple orientation (snicker :cool: ), BCHydro messing around with stuff and I believe capacitors. I did add a mag 12 to the circuit and was wondering if maybe I am using too much power or something? Wouldn't the breaker just trip?

Any help is appreciated. I was hoping to get a couple more months out of these bulbs if possible. Jack was using them on his tank for awhile and didn't see any problems with them. For all I know I could have been staring at them for too long and maybe its me thats dim :razz:

TIA
Christy :)


PS. Hey Brad, Jack thinks its because I don't have a calcium reactor :wink:

[Aquattro]

PS. Hey Brad, Jack thinks its because I don't have a calcium reactor :wink:

Christy, it is. I had the EXACT same problem until I got a Ca reactor. Hey, you should get one!!! :razz:

[christyf5]

Wow Brad, you have the BEST suggestions.:rolleyes: Hmm, I wonder where I should get one from??? :confused: :question:

[Aquattro]

Wow Brad, you have the BEST suggestions.:rolleyes: Hmm, I wonder where I should get one from??? :confused: :question:

I gots a few ideas.....

[christyf5]

Indeed.

Say around Christmastime?? :wink: :razz:



Now back to the problem at hand! When we last left her, Christy was left in the dim, due to her lighting dilemma. Being almost night blind, she fumbled around for a solution to her problem.....


:mrgreen:

[StirCrazy]

I am not sure about the Ca reactor thing.. but I think that a Kalk reactor might help a bit.. :wink:

Steve

[christyf5]

I take it back about the "genius" part. You guys are goofs :rolleyes:

[Aquattro]

Now back to the problem at hand! When we last left her, Christy was left in the dim, due to her lighting dilemma. Being almost night blind, she fumbled around for a solution to her problem.....



I think you might have a problem with your lights. Don't need no genus to figur that

[Dresden]

positive results are just oozing from this thread :)

[Aquattro]

positive results are just oozing from this thread :)

It makes me warm all over when I see appreciation for the help we give. :biggrin:

[StirCrazy]

Christy, the only way to be sure there is not a fault in the power at your home, is to take the set up to a different house and plug them in. use a simple LUX meter to measure the light intensity at your house and at the different house.

As for the bulbs what kind are they? I personaly suspect a bulb/ballast combanation problem myself

Steve

[christyf5]

The bulbs are 250W Iwasaki 6500K. They are the bulbs without the resistor. I was just going to use them temporarily until I could afford new bulbs. I guess I am going to have to afford them sooner than I thought.

Christy :)

[Delphinus]

If you suspect the mag12, have you tried turning the pump off for a while and see if you notice a difference with the lights?

I don't know how to diagnose a faulty capacitor. If it was the capacitor, I would have guessed you'd be having problems starting, not overall intensity. But that's just a completely uneducated guess on my part.

Can you try a new bulb? I mean, like a completely new bulb. I guess that's not ideal since if that's not it and you have to buy a bulb just to try then you're out the $$$ and not really any further ahead. I guess about the only other thing to try is see if someone can lend you another ballast for an afternoon, play around with that and see if there's any difference.

Good luck, let us know if you find anything out.

[christyf5]

I did try plugging the lights into an outlet on a different circuit but there was no noticeable difference in intensity of the bulbs. I did a bulb swap last night (just about forgot about that) and the color difference is definitely due to the bulbs (one is bluer and one is more yellowy like the 6500K should be). I'm thinking these bulbs have had it as well, I just thought they were younger so I'd try them but it seems they are old and crusty as well. So I'll be getting new bulbs as the next test. Then I will have to go from there if that isn't the problem. Good thing I'm made of money :rolleyes:

Tony, did you ever find out where you could get the H37 ballasts??

Christy :)

[StirCrazy]

Ok next question, do you know which brand and model number your ballast are?

Steve

[Delphinus]

Once I realized the part # of an Advance ballast that was H37 and not both H37/M58, I just figured I could go to the corner-store lighting supplier and get them there. (I had assumed that since my H37/M58 combos are Advance, that Advance mustn't make "just H37's" :redface: ... not realizing that Advance has about 1000 different models for every ballast designation you can dream of.. :lol: ) I haven't yet pursued it beyond that.

[StirCrazy]

Also one thing I forgot to mention (but you probably know it alreays) was that the bulbs without the resistores burn less blue than the bulbs with the resisters. So comparing a new bulb with out the resistor against a older bulb with the resister will make the older bulb look nicer..

but it could be the bulbs or it could be the ballast.. if it is a cheep ballast then it could be running the bulbs a little off and burning them out a little faster.

Steve

[christyf5]

I don't have the ballast info here. I did write it down last night though and left the paper at home as I had emailed albright to see what they had to say about it.

Steve, yes I knew about the resistors. I have a pair of the non-resistor type in right now, Jack took the other resistor set back up to courtenay with him. He says they're much whiter. I asked him about intensity but he hasn't responded yet. The comparison I'm making is between two non-resistor bulbs. One is yellow and the other is blue. Now without the actinics both are yellowy but one is brighter.

I don't know about it being a cheap ballast or not. I'll get the info for you after I get off work.

Christy :)

[Jack]

Hey Christy,

The "R" bulbs are sooo much nicer. What a difference.

I don't see a loss of intensity but maybe a hair... and with that said, it's probably just my imagination. These bulbs are so much whiter than the old version. I wonder what brand new bulbs look like.

If you want these bulbs back let me know, I'm gonna order soon.

Brad, we asked if you'd built us reactors and you said sure.... that was in January :razz: lol

[Aquattro]

Brad, we asked if you'd built us reactors and you said sure.... that was in January :razz: lol

You just got bumped another month :razz:

[Jack]

You just got bumped another month :razz:

Doh! :lol:

Ah well, I'm gonna give DIY a try... I'm gonna loose a finger or somethin though! :smile: