ballast bad?

[rtoycrow]

I have 3 icecap ballast 250 watt that i bought back in 2009 and like a dummy i didn't register them for warrenty so i need a little help. One of the ballast i have work fine the other two i am having a problem. One i have will cut the light on for about three minutes then it cuts off and starts again when it cools down. I switched lights out because one i pretty new and it does the same thing. The other wont cut the light on at all. I have a volt meter and it is getting power just wont turn the light on. Are .either of these ballast bad? Thanks for the help

 

[acrylic51]

Have you checked power to the bulb socket itself??? It could be a possibility that you have 3 bad bulbs???! Have you tried the bulb the lights consistently in the other questionable sockets???
IceCap is out of business, but I thought I read somewhere that someone is servicing their products, but not sure who!!!

 

[acrylic51]

Sorry!!!! Just did a quick google, and appears CoralVue is servicing IceCap ballasts.

 

[rtoycrow]

wow, maybe thats why they haven't returned my emails, i have seen these 1000 watt ballasts, do you know if you can run 4 250 watt bulbs off that one ballast?

 

[acrylic51]

No you can't use 1000W ballast to power 4 250W MH bulbs. The ballast will power specifically what their rated for!!!! 1000W ballast will power 1 1000W MH bulb.... 1 250W MH ballast per 250 W MH bulb.

 

[tangs rule]

Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///forum/thread/387038/ballast-bad#post_3402467
No you can't use 1000W ballast to power 4 250W MH bulbs. The ballast will power specifically what their rated for!!!! 1000W ballast will power 1 1000W MH bulb.... 1 250W MH ballast per 250 W MH bulb.
+1 and be very careful measuring voltages on a plugged in ballast - The initial (starting) voltage on an HQI DE ballast can be several thousand volts.....I blew up one of my multimeters once trying to look at output voltage on a magenitic ballast.. It was set on 600vac - but the voltage was probalby a few times higher than that, cause as soon as i touched the output terminals, the meter "popped" and never measured anything again.

 

[rtoycrow]

i figured it wouldn't work, guess i am gonna have to scrap these ballast since coralvue won't work on these models, guess my fish are gonna have to live with one light for a while til i get some money for more lights, glad i don't have any coral than mushrooms. thanks for the help guys

 

[scsinet]

Google "ballastwise"
Much cheaper than CoralVue or Icecap, similar footprint, and good performance IME.

 

[rtoycrow]

i found a cheap t-5 fixture on ebay i am gonna try out, if it turns out ok, i will probably by a few more of those, thanks for the info though, i will keep that in mind if these turn out to be garbage