Odyssea Light fixture problems

[asylumdown]

I have a 750W Odyssea metal halide light fixture. 2X 250W metal halide bulbs, 250W actinic T5s.

I know it's pretty cheap fixture, but it's worked great for the past year. Tonight I replaced the 15 000K stock MH bulbs that came with it (it's been a year) with 10 000K 250W coralife bulbs. In the process, I broke one of the original bulbs.

The problem is that neither of the new bulbs will ignite. When I swap out the not broken original bulb, it ignites no problem, but nothing I do will make the new bulbs, which should be identical except for colour temp and manufacturer, ignite.

At this point, my tank has no lighting and I'm kind of freaking out. Is there something obvious that I'm missing? They're double ended bulbs for a double ended fixture, shouldn't they just ignite?

[lockrookie]

the bad part with oddysea is that you have to use thier bulbs so you may have to order from them and try to get them to rush ship it for you. some of the other bulbs from other mfg wont work from what i have read... when i ordered my lights recently i ordered extra bulbs tohave on handfro this situation.

[asylumdown]

Really? I had read so many forum posts bout people upgrading this fixture with different brands of bulbs without any problems so I thought I was OK. I don't much want to keep using their brand of light bulb either, but wow, upgrading to a new fixture for however many thousands of dollars right now is definitely not in the budget.

[lockrookie]

they probably upgrded teh ballasts as well tho

[lockrookie]

maybe there is somthing wrong with your new bulbs? try a different brand its worth a shot.

[asylumdown]

I'm a super newb when it comes to all things electronic like this, can the ballasts determine whether or not the bulbs ignite even if the bubs are the same wattage?

[lockrookie]

im not exactly sure myself there are others on here whom i hope will chime in and give you a better answer. i wish i could be more help all i know is a bit of what ive read on a few forums.

[cuz]

your fixture should fire up any brand of bulb, As long as they're 250watt DE it should work.
Ive got a smaller one with a pheonix in it no problem.

make sure there isn't a piece of broken bulb stuck in the sockets blocking the current to the new bulb

[George]

I did a quick research. It sounds like the stock ballast inside Odyssea 250W fixture doesn't run at 250W at all. It runs at about 160W. No wonder it can't fire 250W coralife.
You have to either stick with odyssea bulbs or replace the stock ballast. I suggest you take the second option.

[Wayne]

I have a friend that changed bulbs in his fixture no problem. You bought FC2 double ended bulbs correct. How long did you wait for them to fire?

[cuz]

i never changed anything in my ballast and it works fine

[RuGlu6]

Like some one noted check for debris at the bulb contact points,
Also wiggle the wiring, you may have a loose wire and no contact (this is also common for t5 tek fixtures)

[asylumdown]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I'm going to head to the store to talk to them about ballasts. I've tried wiggling things and cleaning the contact points and it's definitely not that, the stock bulb fires up instantly in both sockets and the new coralife bulbs won't turn on no matter how long they're in (I left them in for an hour last night while I got ready for bed).

The bulb package says 'M80 or equivalent ballasts'. Like I said I'm a total newb when it comes to electronics, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that's not what I've got from the research I've done and what you guys are saying. This fixture is literally the only piece of equipment who's documentation I no longer have though, it got accidentally recycled in the spring.

Getting this thing apart to replace the bulbs is one mother of a pain in the ass, so at the moment my tank's pretending there is a protracted solar eclipse. I'm off to the store!