MH Help?

bmoore92 · Feb 20, 2015

Anyone running 150W metal halides? I just bought a cheap fixture and ballast for my frag tank and I was hoping I could come troubleshoot my bulb and electronic ballast. Im new to halides but I have noticed a few things that do not seem right but someone please correct me if I'm wrong. 1) the bulb looks good with minimal "smoking" on the glass. 2) Im getting no sound or heat from the ballast. Not even a low hum. Any ideas anyone?

Thanks, Britt

alan.reef · Feb 20, 2015

does it fired up?

bmoore92 · Feb 20, 2015

I don't honk so. The bulb doesn't come on and I haven't seen any indicAtion of power going to it. I just noticed that the ballast makes a low buzz that lasts about 5 seconds when turned on.

Reefing Madness · Feb 20, 2015

Starting Cap is probably bad.

jdl513 · Feb 20, 2015

Is the ballast used?
They don't last forever and when they fail it is in the blink of an eye.

Do you have another MH bulb you can install to see if it fires?

bmoore92 · Feb 20, 2015

Yeah the whole setup is used. I don't have another bulb but I posted on my local forum asking if anyone is running something similar so that I could come troubleshoot my equipment so we'll see how that works.

hybridazn · Feb 20, 2015

I would say the ballast has crapped the bed. I would start there for sure

bmoore92 · Feb 20, 2015

What should the ballast sound like? Anything I can do at this point besides replace the ballast? I was hoping to keep this thing cheap.

hybridazn · Feb 21, 2015

bmoore92 said:
What should the ballast sound like? Anything I can do at this point besides replace the ballast? I was hoping to keep this thing cheap.

It should make a ever so slight humming noise when firing then go basically silent after the bulb has been lit