Can someone tell me whats wrong with my light?

[Trevor]

I think it's the ballast, fuse looks good, but won't do anything, doesn't even hum when it's on like it used to.. Only thing I could think of was maybe I lost power and it came back on too soon so it didn't have a cool down period, but then again it's plugged into my rkl and set to mh so it automatically has the cool down period of 15 mins built in..
Is it just time for a new ballast?

 

[s_kelley]

Open it up an take a look. I had a ballast that a capacitor melted in before. It cost 50 cents to buy a new one at RadioShack and then it was good as new

 

[Owen386]

I know it sounds stupid but did you try in another outlet to make sure it was not on that 15 minute warm up period or something.

 

[mereefgeek]

easiest way to tell is with a voltage meter. touch the ends that fire up the bulb if there is no power its the ballast if there is power its the bulb

 

[Trevor]

Open it up an take a look. I had a ballast that a capacitor melted in before. It cost 50 cents to buy a new one at RadioShack and then it was good as new

Ill have to take a look today, thanks for the info

I know it sounds stupid but did you try in another outlet to make sure it was not on that 15 minute warm up period or something.

Sadly that was the first thing I did, but ive been gone for over 2 months so I have no idea when it went out, luckily I have 2 t5s that's been keeping everything alive

easiest way to tell is with a voltage meter. touch the ends that fire up the bulb if there is no power its the ballast if there is power its the bulb

Ill have to check and see if I have a meter around somewhere

 

[Owen386]

2 months and the tank has been running it self? Damn Good for you!

Good Luck

 

[Trevor]

2 months and the tank has been running it self? Damn Good for you!

Good Luck

With a little help from inlaws topping off ato
I'm about to do the first water change its had in over 2 months today

 

[Trevor]

Would a 175w run a 150w bulb without blowing it?

 

[Trevor]

I found the problem!? Is this anything? Or is these plastic pieces just adapters?

 

[dannyp02908]

those are just quick connects. but, it is possible that that short caused something else to fry. If you want to try to reconnect those wires, grab a wire nut that can safely hold 3 14# wires and try it out.

 

[dannyp02908]

also, trim back the wire past the burnt insulation, or replace the wire completely.

 

[Trevor]

What I did was moved the wires down the line to the right there was like 6 unused disconnects and wired it back up and it's working great now, idk what happened

 

[Trevor]

Do you know what gauge wire it is? How can you tell?

 

[dannyp02908]

looks like 14# wire to me. It may be marked on the insulation, but that i am only taking an experienced guess. Good call on the unused connects. i didnt see them. burning like that is almost always a loose connection. with those quick connects, the wire heats and cools. they are just plastic. over time, possibly the wire came loose. if you want to make it a little safer, wire nuts wrapped in electrical tape.

that wire may be smaller than 14#. im only going by the pic.

 

[Trevor]

Alright cool, thanks Danny

 

[willray]

Glad you found the problem. My guess is that one of the connections had loosened a bit and gave a poor connection causing the meltdown. Double check all other connections if you haven't already.