Need help with MH upgrade

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reefrunner69

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
May 16, 2002
Messages
1,663
Location
Cedar Key, FL
I finally received my ballast and bulb from pro_builder today, I switched the ballasts and capaciter in my CSL prism pendant wired it all up, switched bulbs, plug it in and it strarts (appears to be a pulse start ballast). The bulb fires, acheives it's full brightness (I assume) and then it the bulb starts to make a high pitched whine increasing in volume until the bulb flashes out. I can unplug the ballast for 5 minutes plug it back in and the process repeats itself, or I can leave it plugged in and it strats all over again. Is it the bulb?? The noise is definately coming from the bulb. I've got another 250W bulb that's been sitting here waiting, as soon as it cools I'm gonna put it in and see what happens. The bulb and ballast were sold to me as an upgrade retro, so I would think they should work together.
 
What kind of Ballast an bulb? The feqency that theballst fires the bulb on my be screwed up.
 
Never mind, I am always amazed when I don't blow myself up doing a DIY project, this one is no exception, goofed on the wiring!!
 
heheh me as well i shock my self more times than i could count doing things with wet hands or not thinking being in a hurry !!
 
You wopuld be amazed at how white a 20K bulb will get when it's wired wrong.

The ballast has 4 wires, the capaciter has two. Two of the wires on the ballast are for the power cord, two are for running the bulb. One wire from the ballast is hooked to the capaciter and one straight to the mogul socket. I had each wire from the ballast hooked to one of the capciter wires and then had both of those hooked to the mogul socket. This is why god invented electricians, to keep idiots like me from frying themselves.
 
heheheh yea at $150 an hour electrician right !! only two wires going from the ballast to the bulb huh??? no 3rd ground?? humm ive been worried somewhat as to why i have 3 and was told to hook the 3rd (green) wire to the reflector but like i said when i do it dont fire!! but i feel a shock coming at sometime cause i know it there for a reason !! was thinking of getting another power cord and just hooking it to the ground wire to be safe !! but then i lose another plug :-(
 
No, there is no ground wire from the ballast, there is a ground wire from the powercord and I conneted a ground wire from the powercord to the ballast casing to the mogul socket. The prism pendant has a ground built into the socket and the socket wiring is removable (it plugs into the ballast casing) so it was pretty easy to do, I just grounded it the same way it was grounded when it was a 175 MH. Now it's a 250 prism pendant.
 
ok i follow you but one more question !! what if your pendant fell into the water ?? what would ground it ?? i guess i thought thats why mine came with the 3rd wire from my ballast to the mogul socket to keep from getting lit up :) cause the power cord has 3 wires but the pendant doesnt so your loosing one somewhere !!
i guess i might need an expert to help figure out if i really need this extra ground is my point !!
 
I honestly don't know. My pendant is grounded, my powercord is grounded, my ballast is no, cause it doesn't have a ground wire. Neither did the 175W MH ballast.
 
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