please help explain - ballasts

[bgcook]

well i posted this thread on reefcentral, but haven't gotten much of a reply. wanted to see if any of you guys have had similar experiences.


I recently went from a 55 reef to a 120 AGA. In this upgrade, I also upgraded the lighting system. Funds were a bit low, so I decidede to try the odyssea (aquatraders) metal halide/compact combo. I got one of the new units (2007) with two electonic ballast running 2x250 watt bulbs, and 2x96 compact actinic. (i am hoping they have worked out that whole fire starting thing :-)

Received the lighting system last week. The system seems pretty well built and for at least now everything is working. It came with one 10k MH bulb (yes, they left one out - go figure), and that bulb works with each socket. I have purchased 2x250W hamilton 14k bulbs. This is my question - these new bulbs do not light up (tried yesterday afternoon). my understanding is that an electronic ballast should be able to use any bulb and that after speaking with marine depot (very helpful) - it seems that with a new bulb, it can take 24-48 hrs before this fires up. the electronic ballast has to get use to it??? Can someone please explain this scenerio for me. It is driving me crazy.

this is the lighting system i got
http://www.aquatraders.com/index.as...PROD&ProdID=307

any help or explanation would be appreciated.

thanks

greg

[Matt Rogers]

This is interesting. Welcome to 3reef by the way.

So my dumb questions ... are the new bulbs HQI ?

Do the lights flicker when you turn it on?

Does the ballast sound any different than it did?


I've been collecting some halide/ballast information here that may help you:
http://www.3reef.com/forums/local_links.php?catid=6

Thanks for joining 3reef!

[bgcook]

good question

the box doesn't say HQI, it says Hamilton Tech MH 250W DE 14000K.

absolutely nothing happens when the switch is turned on. marine depot says this is happens with new bulbs and it could be 24-48hrs before anything happens. this just seems weird to me.

the ballast seems to be on, it is slightly warm (not hot).

the original bulbs 10k from odyssea light up immediately upon turning on.

thanks

[Matt Rogers]

I agree about the 24-48 hour explanation. That is weird and I am not sure I am buying it either.

So are we talking double-ended bulbs here?

[bgcook]

yes double ended.

the system has been on for approx 24hrs now - still nothing.

how do you know if the bulbs are bad? since i bought two, i figure one of them would have to work.

thanks

[Matt Rogers]

My last HQI bulb that was bad had a lot of loose filament rattling around in it.

Is the plug in a grounded outlet?

[bgcook]

no loose filament, that i can tell. the plug is a three prong and it is plugged into a traditional outlet right now. the unit is actually plugged in the dining room, so i could run my old lighting system right now. once it goes into the tank it will be plugged into the GFCI (mispelled) circuit.

thanks for your help so far, have to run out for a while - will check back in a few hours.

greg