Lighting gurus please respond.
 

Hey guys, got another lighting question for ya :wink:

Wednesday afternoon I came home from work and my MH (250W, 6500K Iwasakis on Iwasaki ballasts) were out on my tank, the actinics were on but that was it. I noticed that the fans were still running (they are connected to come on with the MH) but no MH. So I opened the hood and had a good look. I noted that the NOs were warm where the MH bulbs were but cool behind the MH fixtures so they had been on at some point before I got home. I looked at the wiring and well it was wiring (hey I don't claim to be an electrician, thats my dads job :wink: ). Anyhoo, everything looked fine so I took the bulbs out for a closer look, they were kinda dirty so I gently wiped them. I looked them over and well they looked like MH bulbs to me and I put them back in. I then fiddled with the switch and lo and they still didn't fire, but the fans came on. I then had the bright idea that maybe we had had a power outage. Sure enough we had. I then tried the switch a few minutes later and away they went. Everything was peachy. My little world was bathed in light once again.

So yesterday I come home and look at my tank and well, it just looks dimmer. My roommate says she doesn't notice anything. I lift up the hood and it illuminates the room and blinds us as usual. I pass it off to staring at a white computer screen (canreef) for most of the evening.

Today once again I look at my tank after arriving home from work and man it is totally noticeable that at least one side is dimmer than the other. When I squint at the bulbs while the hood is lifted, one side looks well, less white I guess. My eyes are still seeing little red dots so I'll have to wait till those go away. Who needs retinas anyway :P

So question is whats up with the bulbs? Can they just go kaput overnight? Did the power outage affect them? Did my stupid idea of cleaning them affect them? Are they just old and crusty? I bought them in Oct 2001, so there is a definite possibility that they do need to be replaced but I've heard of people going as long as 2 years with Iwasakis.

Any insights?

Christy :)

Hi Christy,

Im no Guru, but i can think of a couple things.

Are the nipples on the bulbs pointing downwards or close to it ?

I dont think bulbs would both crap out at the same time if it was a being old bulb issue,but i would replace them soon anyways.

I dont think its your bulbs tho if they look good still, it might be the capacitors that are in your ballast casing.

When ive seen a capacitor go for me, it usually heats up to the point of distorting the plastic casing noticeably on the outside of it...or maybe i have serious power issues ;).

So If you can acsess them easily,i would check these aswell.
I have had them go, and i think surges can fry them forsure.
And i would guess there are some surges when power is restored to our homes.

You are running m59 ballasts right ?
If so, i have a new capacitor for a 250w ballast that you can have to put in the dimmer of the two lights. To see if that fixes the problem, and if our electricians see that as a possible remedy.

I am going to try and attend this meeting, i will bring it for you if you havent solved it by then.

Christy, maybe check with BC Hydro to see if they made any changes. If you recall I had weird lighting problems with dim and/or green color. After BCH moved my line feed toa different transformer outside, everything is fine. Maybe they did something outside your house (which could have been the source of the outage)

Thats great Marc, although I have no idea what you're talking about :wink:

1. the bulbs don't have nipples, they are sort of squared off at the ends.

2. I'll probly replace them when I get some more money. I bought one of those Living Large Lottery tickets on Thursday so when I win that I'll definitely run out and get new bulbs

3. Capacitors and M59s. Yes I've heard about M57s but not M59s. Other than it being a ballast I don't know much more. I have 2 bare ballasts that are "Iwasakis shipped straight from japan" this is what the guy that sold them to me (secondhand) told me. I just nodded and smiled. Hmm capacitors. Well I just looked at them and they haven't melted any, they are pretty hot tho. The whole thing is hot, but thats not unusual. The ballasts say H37 on them and one of them is humming when you get real close. Is that bad?? I would assume so.

4.They are plugged into a surge protector powerbar. I have no idea whether the "surge protector" part actually does its thing tho. Man if those ballasts are fried I am gonna be ****ed. :x

That would be great if you could bring that new capacitor over for me. I'll have my electrician put it in :wink:

Thanks for the info Marc!

Christy :)

Brad,

I dunno about that cuz I remembered when I was driving thru a couple of lights on the way home, everyone was doing the four way stop cuz the lights were out. When I got to my house, a considerable distance away, I never thought the power would be out there until a bit after getting home and fiddling with the bulbs I remebered the traffic lights being out too. Do you still think I should call BC Hydro??

Christy :)

Hi Christy,

The nipples arent on the ends of the bulbs :oops:

There is a small bump on the side of the glass inner tube that makes a difference in intensity sometimes,heres one article.....

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/

Ooops, that wont get you there....heres a pic of one from there.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/imag...aki_nipple.jpg

I dont remember if they are supposed to face up or down though.

Am i allowed to do that ? , that is borrow a pic like that out of there ?

Oops my bad. The word nipple does conjure up a specific image.

Ok so are they suppoed to be up or down. It shouldn't matter because it didn't seem to before. I never knew about them before.

I don't think its bad to take a pic from somewhere just say where you got it :)

Christy :)

Oh k, i just did a search at the above link and it brought some up,including that one. :D

I was guilty aswell, thus the :oops: in the previous post. :lol:

Hehe,

Ok so it turns out one nipple is up and the other down. The up one is the brighter bulb so I'll move the other one and see what happens. Gotta wait till the bulbs cool off tho. Dang those things get hot!

Christy :)

Yup, nipples are supposed to be up on the bulbs. Also I hear fans direclty blowing on MH bulbs cool them down below thier designed operating temperature which, in turn, brings the bulb kelvin down.

H37 ballast are the optimum ballasts for Iwasaki. They are mercury vapor, suposidly they run the Iwasaki brighter, whiter and more intense. It's what they are designed to run on.

I think it has been disproved now that the nipple orientation has anything to do with bulb performance or output. I think Advanced Aquarist had an article entitled " Nipple Nonsense" that covers the topic quite well. I have one up and one down, makes no difference for mine.

Hey Brad, I know Richard had all the evidence in his article and it was all well presented but I've seen pictures to the contrary. I think one of the Nathans had some pictures showing up and down and it certainly looked brighter to me with the nipple up. I've never bothered to try anything else but I like my nipples up :twisted:

Sorry bud, not touchin' that one!! 8)

Well one has always been up and the other down (no smirking please :wink: ). I tried to orient both of them the same way but due to the threading and position of the fixtures thats the way it has to be. I ended up switching the bulbs but havn't seen them in action yet. I'll post tomorrow. Somehow, I don't think this is totally bulb related.


Thanks for the input.

Christy :)

Hi Christy,

Your prolly right, that isnt the problem.
I had thought if you pulled them out to clean them after the power went out,you may not have oriented the nipples :oops: the same as before.

I do remember one of my bulbs looking way dimmer and more yellow on a previous setup.
In that instance i could say forsure that is was 100% the capacitor that was the problem, after switching out to a new one she was as good as new with the same bulb.

Hopefully thats all it is,because thats an easy and quick fix for you.
Ill bring a new one for you anyways,

Well okay, lighting is on this morning and everything is bright. In fact, painfully bright. Yesterday I could look at the bulbs while they were on, today my retinas recoil in horror. They are definitely brighter and all I did was swap the bulbs to opposite sides of the tank. Oh and I left the lid to the ballast box open. I dunno what the heck is going on. Maybe there is a screw loose in the operator :P

Christy :)

could the ballasts be getting too warm christy? having the cover off now allows them to cool - try putting it back on and see if it affects the bulbs.
shane

Good idea, I'll try that. If it is the heat affecting the ballasts, I guess I'll have to install a fan in the ballast box or something.

Christy :)