Ballast for 250 Radium

Bbaz123456 · Apr 10, 2016

I had a few old aqua medic 250 double ended fixtures running and one of the sockets fried. I couldn't find any sockets locally so I picked up a radium and a mogul socket.
The bulb will not fire. I tried it on both ballasts and both ballasts on the DE bulb and they work fine. Am I doing something wrong here or will this combo not work?
From what I am reading, it should work, just not at optimum color...

hybridazn · Apr 10, 2016

Is the bulb seated in the socket correctly? You want to make sure the metal flap in the bottom of the socket is making solid contact and not arching. Take a flathead screwdriver and pry it out a bit, but not too much because the spring will pop out. Also do not over tighten the bulb, it won't fire either. A few turns is really all that is needed and make sure the nipple is facing up.

Bbaz123456 · Apr 10, 2016

Thanks
I just tried that. You forgot to tell me to unplug from the ballast and not to use my finger. Haha. The ballast was turned off but still got a nice jolt.
Anyways, I pried the prong out some and then tried not tightening as much.

Still the same. I know it is making contact because it is trying to start but this is as much as its doing. I guess it's possible the bulb is bad?

hybridazn · Apr 10, 2016

Haha whoops, it is possible the bulb is bad. Do you have another mogul bulb you can try?

Bbaz123456 · Apr 10, 2016

Not 250. But I do have a brand new wall pack fixture I just brought in. I'm going to try that and see what happens

Bbaz123456 · Apr 10, 2016

I did have a standard(non reef4-5000k-ish) 250 that came with the wall pack. Put that in and it fired right up

hybridazn · Apr 10, 2016

The bulb is def a dud then.

Bbaz123456 · Apr 10, 2016

Thanks for your help. I tried it on the other ballast too. Didn't work.
It is unbelievable how bright that 4000K bulb is! I am going to run it for a few hours to get some light to the corals but definitely don't want to let it go too long

hybridazn · Apr 10, 2016

No problem, sucks you have to get another bulb though

alton · Apr 11, 2016

What are the numbers on the ballast? If they are probe start ballast, they will not fire pulse start lamps (radium). The fact they fire your wall pack lamp, it maybe a probe start lamp.

Bbaz123456 · Apr 11, 2016

There is no number on the ballast box. If I open it up, would it have one on the actual ballast itself? I will try that later.

On the tab inside the mogul socket in the wall pack it does say "pulse" on it, I'm assuming that means it is a pulse ballast

hybridazn · Apr 11, 2016

By the wattage listing it's an hqi ballast which is a pulse start electronic ballast. I'm not sure on what the ANSI code would be, but a standard electronic ballast (249w) is m58