coralife aqualight w 150w de halides modifying to 250w de halides

hey larry when you open up your fixture can you measure the fan for me?
They have 4.75x4.75 and 3.25x3.25

 

The fan is 4 5/8". It is AC, and the black is hot, black with white stripe is neutral.

 

did u see how it was wired to the existing ballast??

 

Yes. I sent you an email about 5 min's ago, but I'll repeat it here. The black connects to the black wire from the ballast. The black/white stripe wire connects to the white wire coming off the ballast. Long story short, the white wire coming from the ballast isn't a neutral, it's a got.

Using the black and white wire from your new ballast won't work b/c they aren't a hot and neutral, hence there's not 120 V potential between the two. That's why it didn't work when you tried.

To fix this, you're going to need to tie the black fan wire to a black wire from any of the other two cables (the LED/moonlight, or actinic power compact cords) coming into the fixture. Tie the black/white stripe wire to a neutral from either of these other two cables too. You're going to have to pigtail off the hot coming in BEFORE it goes to the switch on the fixture to avoid the LED or or actinic switch from operating the halide fan.

I hope that was clear enough!

Good luck, bro.

 

Success at last... My project is complete. Extremely happy with the outcome. Sure I dropped a little more money than intended but thats a known thing in this hobby.

I defeated the fan problem. Purchased a new fan. Icecap 120mm cooling fan. Fit perfectly in place without remounting it. Fan actually has 2 speeds and almost twice the cfm on full speed compared to the stock fan. So now im at ease with the heat issue.

Overall.... My tank looks sharper, more intense, and the corals will be lovin my modification to the fixture. I recommend to this anyone that wishes their aqualight could be better.

Maybe I can say I have the best 48 inch aqualight pro series ;D

Thanks reefsparky for all of your time and help

Heres some additional pictures for you reefsparky...
Noticed the sockets how they are mounted. And how the sockets were wired (pretty basic)
I included one with the wires coming out of the fixture. Notice the smallest cable for the fan.
And last but not least is the lighting on the tank ;D

 

Well done, tatted! So your new electronic ballast has 3 hot wires coming to the fixture, or just two and a ground?

 

the green wire is the ground... not sure black is live and white is neutral. But I do know that the green is ground

 

So if I understand, the ballast cord to the fixture/lamp has a black, white and green?
Assuming this is the case, you tied the green off to the screw on the frame with the other grounds?
And ran black to one socket and white to the other socket?

 

you got it.... Wiring extremely easy. Coralifes stock wiring, igniter, and ballast makes it all intimidating and complicated lookin. But with the ELECTRONIC ballast its cake work. no need for an igniter. But yea I just put the ground to the fixture base. And other wires (white and black) one to a socket.

I do HIGHLY suggest getting the icecap fan. POWERFUL to keep good air circulation inside the fixture. easy to install. No need for extra holes. I used the same screws and put it in the same exact slot. size of fan exactly the same. I just ran power supply through the existing holes where the ballast cord went through. Had to clip male (or female..forgot) plug to feed wire through hole and re-wire plug back on.

Hope my experience helps you out larry. Learn from me. Eventhough no mistakes were made. Maybe the fan but was best to replace.

 

I'm not sure what you mean.

Did you run new power wires into the fixture from the outside? (thru the existing hole hole on the outside of the fixture?)

Or did you wind up using the black and neutral from the Actinic cable? Is the fan switched off the Actinics like you originally planned?