Just picked up a dual galaxy ballast and thought this would be a plug 'n play thing cuz the light fixture box stated electronic ballasts..
Turns out coralife means electronic ignitor downstream of a magnetic ballast, and one of the leads is a pass through for 110v to power the fan.
So.. after the sparks and fire, I rip into the fixture to find out where that elusive magic smoke came from, and discovered the ignitors (toasty, extra toasty). Simple bit to remove the wiring from the ignitor and straight wire back to the ballast cords, thinking all is well if the lamps fire...
Yea, they did, no damage to the new ballast, but now the fan doesn't work.
You can't see or get to the remaining wiring harness without dismantling the whole freakin' thing, just to find they wired one leg of the fan to the green lead, the other to the white.
Cured the fan issue by popping another hole in the fixture and placing a strain relief grommet and cord through it to power the fan. I'll need to label this lead so I can piggy-back it with the power for the halides, or the fixture will overheat.
If you happen to have this fixture as a result of drinking some salesman's kool-aid and want to upgrade it, You'll need to dismantle and remove the ignitors and add a lead to power the fan.
Real glad I did this in the garage and not over the tank, it could have gotten REAL ugly..
The conversion itself takes about 20 minutes to accomplish, not terribly hard, 4 wires for the lights, 2 wires for the fan total.
Turns out coralife means electronic ignitor downstream of a magnetic ballast, and one of the leads is a pass through for 110v to power the fan.
So.. after the sparks and fire, I rip into the fixture to find out where that elusive magic smoke came from, and discovered the ignitors (toasty, extra toasty). Simple bit to remove the wiring from the ignitor and straight wire back to the ballast cords, thinking all is well if the lamps fire...
Yea, they did, no damage to the new ballast, but now the fan doesn't work.
You can't see or get to the remaining wiring harness without dismantling the whole freakin' thing, just to find they wired one leg of the fan to the green lead, the other to the white.
Cured the fan issue by popping another hole in the fixture and placing a strain relief grommet and cord through it to power the fan. I'll need to label this lead so I can piggy-back it with the power for the halides, or the fixture will overheat.
If you happen to have this fixture as a result of drinking some salesman's kool-aid and want to upgrade it, You'll need to dismantle and remove the ignitors and add a lead to power the fan.
Real glad I did this in the garage and not over the tank, it could have gotten REAL ugly..
The conversion itself takes about 20 minutes to accomplish, not terribly hard, 4 wires for the lights, 2 wires for the fan total.
