Any electricians out there?
 

Just curious if there are any electricians or anyone that knows a little about tank lights. My two 2 bulb Aquaticlife T5's stopped working. I am sure it has to do with the salt creep but I recently changed over to freshwater so that wont be a problem anymore.

Anyway, curious if I could pay anyone to take a look and fix it if it is a cheap fix. I wouldn't want to go out and buy a whole new set up if I could fix these for relatively cheap say under $50.

Thanks.

Are the bulbs good?

Check the end caps for black burn marks, if they look clean & not melted any where I would suspect that it would be the ballast.if you got one of those pen type current indicators you could easily find where the power stops. If you have current up to ballast but not after it's you ballast, if power after ballast it could be a couple of your end caps. You might be able to take the fixture to a place like Eccol or Westburne to have it check out.

Definately not the bulbs. I dont see any black burn marks on the end caps.

I will take it to one of those stores you suggest. Thank you.

Black burn marks on the end of the bulbs are not always a 100% indicator that they are shot. Many newer fluorescent ballasts, particularly T5HO have what's called an 'End of Life' or EOL feature. This will cut out both lamps on a two lamp fixture, even if one of them is still good. It's designed to minimize risk of fire or bursting the tube due to the ballast continuing to deliver current to a non functional tube.

If you haven't tried swapping tubes with known good ones, that will still be your best option for step one of troubleshooting and could save you some money & aggravation. Not sure it's a good idea to be looking for voltage at the output of a ballast at the endcaps. Very high voltage and without tube installed the circuit would not be complete anyway.

As suggested by Grizz a pen type tester is completely safe to use. The one I use is by Fluke but others are available. The tester detects current through the insulation of the wires and is made of plastic so you don't have to expose any wires or take things apart. Just plug the unit in and put the tester against the wires going into the ballast, if lights up or beeps you have power going to the ballast. Now place the tester against the wires leaving the ballast to the end caps, if the meter doesn't light up or beep your ballast is completly shot. The pen is handy to have for trouble shooting all sorts of devices such as wall plugs, light sockets, etc. Only works on AC voltage though, although they may make one for DC as well.

I wouldn't bother, they will not help you, they are sales, not service.
An electrical service call will be $100 and then parts.
Take it to a LFS, that will be your best bet to getting someone to help for free.

Having worked for both, EECOL, and Westburne, I can tell you they wont help you at all. None of the staff that work at these places are electricians. They will have a great knowledge of what you have but they will not and should not tell you how to wire it due to liability issues.

EDIT. They might not even know WTF you have. The aquarium ballasts and lamps are out of their field of expertise. The standard MH ballasts and lamps they sell are not the same as the ones we use. They may or may not even have a catalogue for something close.

I have taken light fixtures to Westburne here in Red Deer & the fellow helped me figure out what was wrong in a matter of a few minutes. I guess customer service is better here then most places for some things anyway but NOT SW shops that is for sure :lol:

EDIT: I bought a replacement ballast for my MH/T5 combo fixture there recently, they really are not that much different.

Im sure they would help you. I've helped lots of people with weird stuff. 8/10 time's I know more about the product im selling than the electricians do. Do I know how to wire it? Ya probably but..... Should I tell people how to wire their stuff, no I don't have my ticket. If it burns their house down all they have to do is say "the guy at Westburne told me to do it like that" and then it becomes my/companies problem/liability issue.

I'm just saying that I agree that it would be a waste of time for the OP to go and get turned away with no help. Better to talk to an electrician.

Do you still work for a wholesaler?

The guys at the wholesalers are great, and they know a lot about what they sell, well some do, but they are not a repair shop, sometimes they can help out if they aren't busy, but I have been in line with guys in front asking how to wire their house or hot tub etc, and the rep will say you need this wire this disconnect and this breaker. But that is it.

I'm a Journeyman Electrician, 95% commercial. But for me to go and look at this light I would charge 100 bucks, and then whatever parts.
Looking at an aquarium fixture I would put good bulbs in (do not try and meter across the output of the ballast as it very high voltage and will destroy your meter) after I checked to see that there was power to the ballast and out of the ballast, still not working, replace ballast. And I would replace with whatever brand ballast the closest wholesaler had in stock. I can't see how much different the marine ballasts are to any other, but keep that in mind.
So you would have a 130-140 dollar bill.

I see this all the time at the wholesaler they try and help and just make it worse. More than once at Eccol in Calgary I have stepped in and told the guy behind the counter to go take a hike after they try and explain how to wire something or how to check things. If you don't know what your doing don't play with it end of story. The ballasts are no different in an aquarium fixture then they are in other HOT5 fixtures which we install or even MH lights. They sell them sure they might not look exactly the same but they are. I just installed 100 lights on a job which are all 6 bulb HOT5 fixtures and the ballasts are the same as in my home setup other than these are set for 347v input instead of 120v.

I also hate to disagree with you but I dont think the wholesalers and staff know more about the product they sell compared to the sparkies who install it. I have had more than one experience in which I ordered a panel which was 600/347v and I got the guts for a 120/208v panel or I order Square D breakers and get Cuttlerhammer its frustrating and happens all the time.


My advice on the light, test with new bulbs if that doesnt work then the ballast is probably shot so either buy a new one or get a new fixture, if its just for a FW tank no plants you dont need massive amounts of light anyways you can pick up single bulb fixture for cheap.