High Tide Aquatics

Crap! Is my ballast is on its way out or is it the heat?

badbread

badbread

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So I get home today and the tank is warm, around 80 degree's. The house is super warm and it's super humid as I haven't been home since Friday and the apartment has been closed up. The MH's were off when I got home and I thought it was because the RK2 turned them off because of the heat. I check the cut off setting and it's set to 81 degrees. It should not have turned the light off, I check the RK2 control box and the MH channel light is on and solid...

Weird, I shut off the power switch on the big ugly ballast box and it was pretty hot and making a buzzing noise. I figure it must have gotten to hot and turned itself off. I direct a fan that way and turn the MH light back on after about an hour and the bulb fires up. About an hour later I hear a loud snap similar to a circuit breaker switching and the MH turns off. I check the RK2 and its still sending power to the MH. Again I turn the ballast switch off and wait about 1/2 hour and turn it back on. About 1/2 later, snap, buzzing, light off. Ballast box isn't hot it's just buzzing. It did this 1 more time this evening.

I turned it back on yet again about 45 minutes ago and it's staying on. Curious if this is a sign of a dieing ballast, due to the heat, etc... The ballast is the one that comes with the 28G JBJ HQI tanks.

Thanks all!
 
I think those are magnetic ballasts, might be on the way out, I have one in case you need replacement, just needs the stock socket it was damaged so I removed it.
 
Jay,

I have the same tank and ballast (it is magnetic). I've had mine now for about 2 years. It definitely runs hot, and lately I've been wondering if it's on its way out. No problems yet, but light output doesn't seem as bright? I hope things go well for you. Let us know how it goes.
 
So, Erin and I are on the same page. As soon as this started happening I thought, SWEET! Good excuse to buy a digital ballast from nano-tuners but... When perusing their site and reading the install doc for the electronic ballast I came across a little piece of info that mentioned the hood has some type of temperature monitor in it that will cut off the ballast if the hood gets to hot. Sure enough, I turned the massive room fan off that was blowing over the top of the hood prohibiting those fans from working 100% and the issue stopped. I blocked all 4 fans to see what would happen and the ballast turned off.

Sigh....
 
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