• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

Desperate for ideas......My lights are out

K

katlongo

I had two bulbs burn out a few weeks ago so I purchased all new bulbs and got them up and running this week. I have six T5s running on two Icecap 660 ballasts - three on each ballast. The lights will not stay on unless all three bulbs are working for each ballast. I woke up Friday to find that one set of lights was out. Unfortunately, I couldn'd do anything about until today so I figured a weekend of half light wouldn't kill anything.

Tonight I removed my canopy and switched out the one bulb that wasn't firing. Nothing! The new bulb is not firing. I switched a definite working bulb into the spot that wasn't firing. Still nothing. I have checked all of the wiring at the ballast end as well as at the end cap. Everything seems to be tight and proper. I decide at that point to just work on it tomorrow, but wanted to rearrange bulbs for maximum light (i.e. I didn't want just blues running for the next few days) and now nothing works! Both sets of bulbs flash on and then flash off.

Any thoughts - I"m really not very mechanical / electrical minded.

Kathy
 
B

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I couldn't say exactly what it is, but that flash is almost always indicative of a wiring problem. Especially since hearing that when you moved bulbs around nothing was working...chances are it's a loose wire. As much as it pains me to say it, I would redo all the connections just to be sure. Also make sure no wires are cut or nicked.

HTH
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Did you buy the right bulbs to replace those? If you've got the wrong bulbs in there they burn out really fast. It could also be a wiring issue. Bad bulb? We had this with our 440 ballast at one point. It was very annoying. That flash is definitely indicitive of an incomplete connection, whether because of faulty wiring, bulbs not properly in the end caps or a burnt out bulb.
 
K

katlongo

Brian == Thanks. I'll try that. I didn't do the original wiring so hopefully I can figure it out. I'm really bummed because the new light configuration is/was beautiful in my tank!

The new bulbs are pretty much the same ones that I had before, I did change two but they are definitely the proper bulbs - just different color spectrum. All of the bulbs will flash -- except for whatever I put in my fourth end cap set, that one always stays off. I originally thought that was the only problem and was going to troubleshoot that but now nothing works.

Do endcaps go bad in and of themselves?
 
B

Brian

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
I'm sure any part can go bad...have you looked at the connections for any corrosion?
 
K

katlongo

Brian said:
I'm sure any part can go bad...have you looked at the connections for any corrosion?
Click to expand...

All of the connections look great. The lights have been in for about 17 months and this is the first time that I've really had to look at end caps, connections, etc. I'm actually very, very impressed - much better than the pieces of ##### that they replaced.

I just found a troubleshooting guide on Icecaps site. I'm going to run through that and see if it helps.
 
J

Jcurry@wesketch

If their JBJ end caps watch out! They flicker on & off and then stay on and catch fire. Luckily I was standing in front of my tank when mine went up in smoke. So to answer your questions YES end caps go bad after a while.
 
K

katlongo

So... I found a troubleshooting guide at the Icecap site - and following their instructions determined that my wiring was loose / incomplete / something... I took apart the two end caps that had issues and put them back together and all is now fine.

Thanks! to everyone.

Kat
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top