So, I came home from work the other day and i noticed that 2 of my bulbs on my light fixture were not working anymore… I thought for sure it was a ballast problem, AGAIN… however when I took a closer look at the bulbs, this is what I saw…
Is this normal when a set of T5 bulbs goes bad that it cracks the ends of the bulbs? or is it possible that the new ballast that I got from That Fish Place my have overworked these bulbs and caused them to crack? I believe what they sold me was a Workhorse 5, here is a link to the website. I am not 100% sure this was the one, but…
Wait for Ken to sign in I am sure he will be in during the next 24 hours. I believe he uses the work horse ballast. Did the bulbs fit very tight in the fixture? What type of bulbs were they?(brand/spectrum)
Certainly could be over driven and that’s my guess but as an alternative could you have water splashing on the bulbs themselves? The bulbs always blacken first at the ends signifying heating of the ends first and a simple splash could crack them. My bulbs are covered by an acrylic splash guard so I have not experienced this yet.
Well, I don’t think water can splash up on them, because I have that acrylic guard in place. There was quite a bit of condensation on the underside of that acrylic, that is the water you see in the picture. The one bulb in the picture, on the right, the end actually fell all the way off when I stood the bulbs up on their end… The slight pressure made the bulb fall completely off, and the contacts inside of the bulb were melted.
The bulbs are the normal blue actinic bulbs that come with the Current USA light fixtures, but they weren’t that old, 4 or 5 months at the most… I had to have this fixture replaced by Current USA because the end caps corroded real bad, so these bulbs are the newer ones. I put my UVL bulbs that are still working in the slots with the Workhorse ballast to see if it does the same thing to those bulbs. They are almost a year old so they need to be replaced anyway. I have 4 new bulbs on the way.
lots of people have had multiple failures with current bulbs in the past. i dont know if they have corrected the problems. I think Logansdaddy had a new current light strip, and most of the bulbs blew out and had to be replaced. lots of stores just stopped carrying them.
Fulham ballasts have long been used in lots of light strips, both PC and T5. ive even used the WH-7 to run two 110 w VHO. they are good ballasts. as long as you got the right size, and used the corrrect wiring diagram. Ive got lots of them running now.
so what length bulbs, Watts, NO or HO and how many bulbs on the ballast.? you said you are using a WH-5. given that info its easy to find the correct ballast and diagram on the fulham website.
I am using 2 48" 54w t5ho on this one ballast. It was wired like the diagram I found on the fulham website. I am not 100% sure its the WH5, its been a while since I put it in… When I got it from TPP they pretty much just handed me the ballast and that was it, and charged me $15. Said it was about to be returned since whoever ordered it never showed up to pick it up or something… When I got home I downloaded the wiring diagram that matched whatever model number it is, I am just having a hard time remembering exactly what it was lol…
They are Current bulbs? At this point I would like to inform you that we have a bulb recycling program and that they contain gasses inside of them that can be toxic to your health. Current bulbs and fixtures are a huge JOKE. Sad because I like to support american made products, but not if they suck. As Ken stated they had a stick warranty type program where the bulbs pretty much weren’t covered, but they’ve sent out a ton of them for free because they are just garbage and fail quickly.
Step one to fixing a current fixture replace the crappy ballast, you got that done. Step two get yourself some real bulbs. If your not using the tank as a prop tank and you aren’t only worried about optimum growth, but the appearance of the tank as well I would stick with these brands: ATI, and Geissman.
Korallen Zucht I would only use there Fiji purple if you had 5+ bulbs. UVL I would only use their AquaSun if you didn’t care what the corals looked like in the tank. IceCaps I honestly have no experience with and I haven’t seen any third parties evaluate yet.
As for the bulbs and toxic gas… well one of the bulbs the end completely broke off… so whatever gas was in them, is not anymore… the other has a pretty good crack in it and I can’t imagine it has any gas left in it either. The local dump that i take my trash to actually has a spot for recycling electronics, and i was told I could put them in that spot… so I took them there.
The fixture I am using actually has 2 ballasts, and one of them is still the Current ballast, but it is on my list to replace.
As for light bulbs, is there anywhere local to buy any of the bulbs you talked about? I hadn’t actually placed the order for the new bulbs yet, I was sort of waiting a few days to see what the UVL bulbs did on the WH ballast, just in case i decided to get a whole new fixture. I know that I can go up to DPA and get a set of UVL bulbs, I think I am using a 70/20 and a 12k, but its been about 10 months since I got those and again… i can’t remember exactly what they are.
No one locally carries ATI, or Geismann(maybe ECA), they can all order them, but not too many request them and the profit margin is lower on these then the cheap bulbs. I know that DPA has Aquaticlife. Call up Fishbowl and what ever other stores are local. Things are changing all the time.
Yup, thats the right ballast for 2 x 54w T5 HO’s. Ive got one old one running two UVL 54w acts in my DIY HQI pendant right now. they are great. I bet one of the local fish stores can order a variety of bulb types. check with them first. Meanwhile, as you replace the Current bulbs, i think Home Depot still has florescent bulb recycle bins near the exit or entrance. check em out, should be a barrel.
