My New MH Bulbs.. Won't Ignite >:

[vinsaltank]

Hi all.
I just purchased some new 175w metal halides to replace my 1 year old ones. :happyfish
I got the same base, same watts. exact same style , just a different K. ( 20k)
Anyone have any ideas why these new bulbs wont ignite? Is it a problem with my ballast? :help:
Should it take more then 15 minutes to fire up? ( I shut the ballast after about 10 mins of waiting). :thinking:
My old 14k, 175w. took like 30 secs to ignite.. :help:

 

[sato]

My guess is that they using a different ignition system. There are two main kinds Pulse start and Probe start (I have no idea what exactly it means though) but you may have gotten a different kind of bulb then what your ballast is.
Pulse start is much much more common then probe and its difficult to find probe start bulbs as far as Ive tried as I have a Probe start ballast and only 1 bulb that works with it and 3 brand new pulse starts that a friend gave me that are useless to m
But my guess is you need to research your ballast and find out what you have. I also believe that Coralife makes mostly Probe Start ballasts and bulbs in case thats what you have.

 

[dingo0722]

thats what I said. In another post

 

[mudplayerx]

Check to make sure you have them installed correctly. You have to have the bulb lined up perfectly with the metal probes. I thought I had bad bulbs once and this was my problem.