Need your help please!

coral keeper

coral keeper

Active Member
I Got a 100 watt security light and I put it over my freshwater planted tank, it was working perfectly fine for a few days then one day it stopped working. So, I thought the bulb burnt out so I ordered a new one from an online store. Now the new bulb came and I put it in and it still doesn't work! The ballast is making that buzzing noise like all the other MH do when you plug it in. I opened up the fixture and ballast and all, and everything looks perfectly fine. I checked the MH socket if it gives out any voltage and it does. So, I'm not sure whats wrong with it. The MH fixture that I have is called: Lithonia Lighting 100W Metal Halide Flood Here is a picture of the fixture. The new bulb that I bought for $11.65 is called: 100 Watt - Metal Halide- Protected Tube - Pulse Start 4200K Clear Google it and you'll find pictures of it. Can anyone please help me out?

 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
Alright well the lamp in the fixture you pictured is a high pressure sodium lamp, so I'm going to assume you just found a picture on the internet of something that looked close, and that your fixture is in fact a halide fixture... right?
The lamp you purchased... are you sure it's a pulse start fixture? If it's not, that's why the lamp isn't igniting. If you can snap a picture of the guts of the fixture I can tell you easily what kind of fixture you have.
 
culp

culp

Active Member
you can take it to a local electrician and see what they say. if any one can find whats wrong it will be a electrician.
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
Originally Posted by Coral Keeper
http:///forum/post/2976978
The fixture and the bulb are both pulse, so I got the right bulb.
Yeah you're right. The ignitor gives it away.
I'd agree on the halide count as well from the pictures alone.
Strange that it's pictured with an HPS lamp though.
Sorry if I am asking really newbish questions.
Okay well I know full well you've checked all connections, so I forsee two possibilities.
1. Bad lamp. Very unlikely if an included lamp "failed" prematurely and a new one also doens't work.
2. Bad ignitor. The ballast could be at fault, but a coil of wire wrapped around a hunk of iron is incredibly unlikely. Given that you are reading voltage at the socket, that also tends to suggest that it's not an open ballast winding.
So I'm gonna go with #2. Bad ignitor. Can you return it and get another?
One possibility... perhaps these fixtures aren't designed to be aimed straight down, which is how I'm sure you had it oriented... maybe heat built up in the back of the housing causing premature death of the ignitor???
 
coral keeper

coral keeper

Active Member
The 100 watt Metal Halide doesn't work because something is wrong with the ballast. So, I'm going to be getting a 175 watt Metal Halide system today!
 
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