T5 Aquatic Life repair

Treefer32 · Nov 15, 2021

I have a 4 bulb 80 watt T5 aquatic life fixture. The front two bulbs got jostled possibly one end wet a little. But, I've dried it used canned air and dried everything out. It got slightly into a half inch of salt water and I don't believe the power caps were wet at all, just a couple drops of water off the end of the fixture. I was troubleshooting why two bulbs power on and two don't.

I discovered that one of the yellow wires that goes into the silicone cap was disconnected. No signs of any type of electrical damage. Just completely disconnected from the silicon. I tried inserting it back into the cap and one of the bulbs would turn yellow and try to power on, but, then turned off. I unplugged it and am leaving it unplugged. My guess is either I need to replace the cap? Or is there a way to get the wire to insert into the plastic cap inside the silicone?

Or do I need to order a brand new cap, cut the wires and solder or tape the new wires together, which seems less than ideal.

Anyone repair the caps before? How is it done?

Thanks !

thesoulpatch · Nov 15, 2021

@AquaticLifeProducts

oreo54 · Nov 16, 2021

Treefer32 said:
I have a 4 bulb 80 watt T5 aquatic life fixture. The front two bulbs got jostled possibly one end wet a little. But, I've dried it used canned air and dried everything out. It got slightly into a half inch of salt water and I don't believe the power caps were wet at all, just a couple drops of water off the end of the fixture. I was troubleshooting why two bulbs power on and two don't.

I discovered that one of the yellow wires that goes into the silicone cap was disconnected. No signs of any type of electrical damage. Just completely disconnected from the silicon. I tried inserting it back into the cap and one of the bulbs would turn yellow and try to power on, but, then turned off. I unplugged it and am leaving it unplugged. My guess is either I need to replace the cap? Or is there a way to get the wire to insert into the plastic cap inside the silicone?

Or do I need to order a brand new cap, cut the wires and solder or tape the new wires together, which seems less than ideal.

Anyone repair the caps before? How is it done?

Thanks !

Are you referring to these?

New caps should have leads that are wire nutted ( or some attachment) to the ballast wires somewhere inside the housing though it looks to be a press fit, which has failed
In which case you just clip, strip, and push the wires in the new cap.
Either way, need a new cap if you can' t reseat the wire.

Fluorescent lampholder G13

The electrical connection is made by pushing the connectoronto the lamp pins. The lamp must be supported by a supplementary component. For double insulated PVC wires, outer diameter of insulation 2.6 - 2.8 mm Lamp diameter 26 mm

www.bjb.com

Yours looks uncommon so ? where to get one except w/ the
Manufacurer.

AquaticLifeProducts · Nov 16, 2021

I believe we were contacted at our customer service side too. The wires can be reinserted or a socket can be replaced.

Please let us know if this was not the case.

Treefer32 · Nov 16, 2021

First, a huge Thank you to Aquatic life for their impressive and quick customer support! Greatly appreciated! Turns out I was troubleshooting too issues. A Broken wire that I was able to cut away some of the plastic and insert into the second wire slot on the cap.

The second issue was of the 4 brand new bulbs 1 was bad. Thanks to support, I moved one bulb to the other working side, and still worked, moved the other bulb to the known working side and stopped working. Moved both known working bulbs to the front (that wasn't working before) and they worked. So, out of 4 brand new bulbs, 1 was bad.

A second huge shout out to Bulk Reef Supply as I contacted them and let them know the situation even though it had been 60 days since I ordered the bulbs (took me that long to find someone to help me bring down the fixture.. It's a two person job. )

BRS offered to replace the bad bulb (with a warning to replace and test them sooner before the 60 days are up) and did not want the old one back!

So, two great product vendors in our hobby that I can't say enough about customer support and helpfulness!

P.s. I can't believe how much difference just two new T5 bulbs make on my reef in 12 months time. I run 2 Aqua blue specials and 2 blue plus bulbs and just having two operational it was almost like a new tank. The light had gotten so white. I need to remember to replace them sooner!

Thank you @AquaticLifeProducts and @Bulk Reef Supply You both are Great and am really happy I spent the money I did on the Aquatic life light fixture. It was the most I've ever spent on any light, but it lights my 340 gallon amazingly. (between the fixture and the three AI Hydra 52s on the fixture.

)