How many people does it take to change a light bulb?

nina&noah

nina&noah

Member
I am trying to change the bulbs in my MHs and I am getting extremely frustrated. One of them won't come on. It is flickering, but won't come on. Is it connected bad or is it a bad bulb? I know they take a while to come on the first time, but I left if flickering for 30 minutes and still nothing. What am I doing wrong. SO FRUSTRATED! Is nothing in this hobby easy!
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Double ended HQI bulb? I know that on those the two little nipples, one on each end, have to be in contact and it is a little hard to seat them sometimes. Try that first, reseating the bulb.
 
nina&noah

nina&noah

Member
Yes it is the double ended kind. I've taken it out and put it back in several times. Some times it doesn't come on at all and some times it just flickers.
What's sad is that as soon as my husband got home from work I dumped the baby on him and said "I have to go get on the message board and figure out why this stupid thing isn't working." My husband now thinks I am a crazy person.
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Do you still have the old bulb? If you put it in does it fire up? Not unheard of to have a bad bulb.
 
nina&noah

nina&noah

Member
Does it have to be facing a certain way like a battery? I'm so frustrated I can scream

I haven't tried the old bulb again yet. It was working fine today, so I think it is a problem with how I am connecting it or with the actual bulb. I just tried to turn it so now I'm waiting to see if it comes on.
 
groupergenius

groupergenius

Active Member
Originally Posted by nina&noah
http:///forum/post/2871265
Does it have to be facing a certain way like a battery? I'm so frustrated I can scream

I haven't tried the old bulb again yet. It was working fine today, so I think it is a problem with how I am connecting it or with the actual bulb. I just tried to turn it so now I'm waiting to see if it comes on.
Toe tapping....
 
groupergenius

groupergenius

Active Member
When you say flickering, is it on and throughout the flickering thing? Or does it go totally off, then take a while to restart?
What ballast? I had a similar problem with an Icecap ballast before. They replaced it free. It's a good company.
 
nina&noah

nina&noah

Member
No, it never comes on. It is like one of those lightning toys. It even makes that buzzing noise.(Sorry, that is the only comparison I can come up with). Tried the old bulb, so its not the ballast.
 
groupergenius

groupergenius

Active Member
Originally Posted by nina&noah
http:///forum/post/2871292
No, it never comes on. It is like one of those lightning toys. It even makes that buzzing noise.(Sorry, that is the only comparison I can come up with). Tried the old bulb, so its not the ballast.
So...new bulb = no light. Old bulb= light......must be bulb.
 
nina&noah

nina&noah

Member
Ok, I did something very dangerous and really stupid, but frustration does that to a person. I took it out and put it back in with the electricity running. I wiggled it until it finally came on. Very stupid, but I got it to work.
Now I'm actually disappointed with the new bulbs. It is too blue and very dark.
I liked my old bulbs better. I thought the new bulbs would make it brighter, not darker.
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
Yup real stupid, glad you are still with us. That said what kind of bulb did you get? With MH sometimes what you see in the first 100 hours is not what you see after that. It's called burn in time.
 
nina&noah

nina&noah

Member
Oh I hope so! I got MH 150 watts with a 14 spectrum. My husband and I just stared at the tank last night and kept talking about how we really remembered it being brighter when we first got the lights last time. This is our first time changing the bulbs after about 18 months. It just seemed so dark!
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
is it a sunpod light?
Here is my experience with them.
I bought last year at a time when Current was having a problem being out of stock with the 14k bulbs that come standard with the Sunpod. I received one of the units that had a 10k bulb put in. A few of us complained to the suppliers we bought the lights from and received new 14k bulbs. I am wondering if you have a Sunpod, and if you bought at a time when they were substituting 10k bulbs, and now that you really have a 14k bulb you can see the difference.
 
nina&noah

nina&noah

Member
Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/2871987
is it a sunpod light?
Here is my experience with them.
I bought last year at a time when Current was having a problem being out of stock with the 14k bulbs that come standard with the Sunpod. I received one of the units that had a 10k bulb put in. A few of us complained to the suppliers we bought the lights from and received new 14k bulbs. I am wondering if you have a Sunpod, and if you bought at a time when they were substituting 10k bulbs, and now that you really have a 14k bulb you can see the difference.
No, I just went to check the old bulbs and they both said 14. I don't know what a sunpod is.
Maybe it's a combination of what you said about burn in time and the fact that the old bulbs were very old. It's not the blue that I mind so much as the darkness. Will my corals or anem. be effected by this burn in time?
 
spanko

spanko

Active Member
No. Sunpod is the light fixture made by Current. Just wondering which light fixture, but if yor had 14k bulbs before doesn't matter.
Some of the variables are that different manufacturers bulbs of the sam Kelvin rating look different in the amount of blue they put out. I know that of the 20k bulbs that I was able to view side by side in the LFS the Radium bulb was the "brightest" blue out of what they had there.
 
D

dennis210

Guest
Another thought, with double ended bulbs; if you were to say compare Hamilton, XM, Ushio, and others all sold as 14000K you will see differences in thebrightness of your tank. Seems like what is called 10k or 14 k, or whatever needs to be standardized. Also with removing old double ended bulbs if the ends are charred (blackened) and you replace it the charring was also on the fixture socket and by "wiggling" it you mere scraped it for a better connection. In the future blease only do this with the power off, there are too few of us salt creeps to loose someone!
Dennis
 
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