Is there an Electrician in the house?

[dakota9]

Help?

Advice?

I was frantic when i first sat down to type this, then had to start over when all wasn't lost.....</em>

I've gone through several lights in the past few months. I had on Odyssea 196watt fixture that lasted almost two years when the ballast blew.

I replaced it with a used Coralife CF fixture. The ballast blew on this fixture within one day.

I bought a new 250watt "generic" fixture off ebay (sure enough, it's an Odyssea when it arrives), and the ballast blew on this fixture within 2 months, but never worked completely right from the get go, as it had always experienced color shifts</em> from yellow light to white light.

Currently, I'm using a borrowed 150watt MH pendant from Loren/Linda, and just a few minutes ago, while I was looking at the tank, my power blinked </em>off, just for 3 seconds or so. All the power went off, but everything came back on immediately afterwards, but the MH pendant. I unplugged it, then plugged it back in, still wouldn't come back on. I was panic stricken!

After about 10 minutes, I plugged it in again, and all is well, as the light powered up as usual.

My question is;

Is all my bad luck with light due to the fact I've gone with cheap or used lighting, or could it be with my electrical service in my home?

I have all my equipment plugged into a Radio Shack surge protector, but found out during a recent voltage leak that I should also have a (I forget the name.....) outlet with a reset button.

Can any of this misfortune be overted?

Thank you for your time and any insight you can give me.

 

[megadeth]

cheap lighting, unless your blowing breakers that is

all halides have to cool down before they will refire


nothing beats an icecap for pc/vho/t5 if you want to stick with long tubes

for halides there's lots of good choices, I'm using a galaxy 400w, I like it, bluelines are popular, pfo has some now too, they are a well known name with quality stuff, I've got a couple 8 year old pfo 400w halide ballasts that still work fine


if there were voltage spike issues, there's nothing your house wiring could do, that's the feed from the power company, you would be suprised how messy power can be, ups/downs etc etc, we had a big table sized UPS that always complained about georgia power

now we have generators at work

 

[victor626nj]

yeah i have a galaxy250 dual and i love it it is very reliable and sam from aquabuys sells them ,as well as the pendents they are pricey but well worth it hes gonna take the par in my tank so when he does ill update you .oh yeah pendants are reefoptix3 hqi

 

[dakota9]

Well, I have never had a problem with breakers flipping, so I suppose you are very right, its just been my choices in lights.....

Thanks for putting my mind at ease on this issue.

 

[victor626nj]

well if you go with a galaxy the balast comes with a 3 year warr.

 

[dakota9]

Thats good to know, how expensive would a Galaxy Ballast be for a 150watt light?

 

[seedless reefer]

Sounds like maybe the house has a shakey ground or perhaps since it's an older house uses dangerous and unstable aluminum wiring?

Maybe you need to check or add a grounding rod.

 

[dakota9]

The electrical is all copper, it was redone about 20 years ago by the original owner (who is also the source of the "old people smell " that I've never been able to get rid of).

I can believe that the system needs to be grounded. I'll look into that. Could lack of ground be a reason this keeps happening? Even using a surge protector?

Thanks

 

[tnyga]

oLD?

 

[tnyga]

Old? As in? I know this is a loaded question....lol

 

[budsreef]

The answer to the other part of your question is GFCI outlet which you should be using with any electrical around water. Lack of GFCI is not causing your lights to die though. I'd go with megadeth on that one.

 

[jefft]

Seedless Reefer;77203 wrote: Sounds like maybe the house has a shakey ground or perhaps since it's an older house uses dangerous and unstable aluminum wiring?

Maybe you need to check or add a grounding rod.

That is most likely the cause, you have a ground wire loose somewhere. It doesn't matter how cheap those ballasts are you shouldn't have blown that many in that short of time. I would get an electrician in your area check every connection all the way to the meter. Have you had problems with any other equipment? Don't just check the bare copper wire, the white wire is also used as a ground on a 120VAC circuit.

 

[megadeth]

only ballasts I own that even have a ground connection are the icecap & halides

all the cheap ones are simple 2 prongs with no grounding at all

 

[jefft]

megadeth;77312 wrote: only ballasts I own that even have a ground connection are the icecap & halides

all the cheap ones are simple 2 prongs with no grounding at all

If you look at the plug one prong is larger than the other. The larger one is the ground. It will connect with the white wire inside the receptical. The white wire in a 120VAC circuit is the ground wire, sometimes called a return line. Follow it to the circuit breaker box and you will see it's grounded.

 

[megadeth]

hmm, I coulda swore it was AC, white & black are the alternating pair, and alternate voltage each side at 60 hertz, the black is hot, white is neutral

the green wire is the ground, and the green goes to the center prong (which I tend to rip off) and is grounded to the breaker box


the polarized plugs, with one end bigger than the other, really do nothing

 

[dakota9]

I've not had any problems with any other appliances in the house. My first light lasted almost two years, and I can't really count the last on at all, since it never really worked right from the time I took it out of the box.

I know I have copper wire, I will look into having the system grounded though.

 

[budsreef]

megadeth;77323 wrote: hmm, I coulda swore it was AC, white & black are the alternating pair, and alternate voltage each side at 60 hertz, the black is hot, white is neutral

the green wire is the ground, and the green goes to the center prong (which I tend to rip off) and is grounded to the breaker box


the polarized plugs, with one end bigger than the other, really do nothing

You're correct it is AC and the black is hot and the white is neutral, but at the box where they come into your house the white is tied to the ground.

 

[megadeth]

I dont mess with wiring much, been so long I've forgot how to hook it up, I think I may be confusing 220 with 110

 

[jefft]

<span style="color: black;">In reality, you only have a neutral wire on a 220 or higher line. On a 120vac line, you do not have a neutral. The white wire is connected to ground in the breaker box. The green ground wire is basically a backup connection. If you have a loose/cold/broken ground connection, you could cause your current to surge/pulse/fluctuate. Thus possibly causing your electronic equipment to go <u>T</u>ango <u>U</u>niform.</span>

 

[schwaggs]

Jefft, you could not be more wrong and are perpetuating dangerously incorrect information. The large prong in a 110V outlet IS NOT ground, it is indeed the neutral line. The partially round prong of an outlet is ground. Megadeth is correct in stating that a 2 prong plug has no ground. Also, in a pure 220V circuit, both colored wires are HOT and there is no Neutral.