Anyone know how to troubleshoot MH ballast? Calgary

[Delphinus]

What kind of ballast?

[Reef_Geek]

it's a jbj viper k2 250watt

[Delphinus]

I'm not familiar specifically with that model but after googling it I found a page that claims it is a cap and coil style ballast and not electronic. In which case you should be able to open it up and replace components if need be, but you'd have to look up the part #'s and order from a place like Litemore, BriteLite, Calgary Lighting Products, or Westburne, or some place like that.

For a double-ended 250w halide it will be an ANSI M80 ballast and the bad news is that I think these are not made anymore. However I'll explain what I know anyhow. There are three components: the transformer (the "coil"), the capacitor (the "cap", looks like a tin can) and then pulse-start ballasts (of which M80 would be) have a 3rd component, the ignitor, which looks like a smaller cap usually. Sometimes, it is the capacitor and sometimes it is the ignitor when they go, but unfortunately unless you are an electrician, diagnosing the errant component involves trial-and-error replacing until it starts working.

Having said all that, however .....

Double-ended halide lamps are notoriously finicky. Have you confirmed that it isn't the lamp? Because dollars to donuts, I bet it is the lamp. If you try another it might just fire up. When I ran these lamps myself I had some fail as early as 6 months in and they wouldn't even turn on.

[reef-keeper]

In my experience time to replace the ballast assembly.

[SoloSK71]

I do have another lamp I can check yes, once the daystar shined again ...

Charles

[SoloSK71]

Yep, it is karked, tried two different bulbs and no luck ... any one recommend Radion Gen2 or AI Vega for my tank?

Charles

[makana]

Did you get it fixed? When my JBJ ballast quit it was just the switch. Easy fix, I bypassed the switch.