Ira Posted June 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2005 No, I haven't replaced the bulbs, Reef. No warranty and I really don't want to be spending $300+ on bulbs right now. I put the old ones back in. Oddly one of them now has a green tinge. Not blaming the supplier, Steve. Blaming the product. Since the old bulbs are working fine I think that rules out the pendant and the two aqualine ones started acting up about a month apart I'm saying my sample size of two means Aqualine 16K bulbs=pooo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie extreme Posted June 18, 2005 Report Share Posted June 18, 2005 i ran currently a BLV on my arcadia 250W ballast, and it also seems very yellow . the bulb states its 10000k cw. basicly the same as my 150w AB bulb (yes i know that the 10000k AB is actually more like 12000k) but the light difference is amazing (the 250w looks like crap!!), its really yellow/green, nothing like the 150w AB which is crisp white. i am getting a different ballast to try from brendon (zeovitnz) on monday and will update if it is the ballast or the bulb. i have been ask what kind of ballast my 150w is. i only know its an HQI and its 20 years old (and still works ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RnB Posted June 19, 2005 Report Share Posted June 19, 2005 before replacing bulb, consider replacing the capacitor in ballast as it maybe not holding charge and this will cause them to go out... caps fail too! I had one fail so bad it caught fire! Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie extreme Posted June 19, 2005 Report Share Posted June 19, 2005 consider replacing the capacitor in ballast as it maybe not holding charge and this will cause them to go out... caps fail too! would that also effect the light output and brightness of the bulb? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RnB Posted June 19, 2005 Report Share Posted June 19, 2005 it could yes..... lower then optimal voltage would lower PAR outputs (read intensity) i am unsure about spectral effect, imagine that lower volatges would effect this too..... as the electrons not being excited in same way as when running optimal voltage.... caps are cheap, radium on northshore are da guys.... they have everything you need for MH systems and sell at trade as they are not a shopfront..... you can get a full 400W system, ballast and reflecter for $267 incl GST + cost of bulb... my tank loves the 400W the corals at the bottom are opening much better now! Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie extreme Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 just rang thornelighting and lamb brokers, because none! of my 3 different halide fittings contain capacitor's (had a slight panic attack coming up ) got told by both that i don't necessary need them, but i might have an unsuitable ballast that runs my BLV 250w 10000k. got to get back to them with the right info of my ballast so will see tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RnB Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 cookie... maybe so with 150W system, I have no experience at that level, but in systems above that I doubt that the voltage could be held high and smooth without one...... it is posible that the ballast does not match the bulb in your 250W setup, Layton have you seen a non cap bigger tehn 150W setup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie extreme Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 mine is an arcadia fitting i got from jansens around 10 years ago, 250w unit with separate ballast box which only contains the ballast and ignitor. thats the reason i asked what a capacitor does. my 400w runs perfect (sunburst 400w 12000k) with just a ballast and separate ignitor. well lets wait til tomorrow. got a ballast from brendon and had a look inside, bummer there is a ballast, ignitor and clearly labeled capacitor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RnB Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 possible a smaller cap is inside what you call the igniter on smaller setups? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 mine is an arcadia fitting i got from jansens around 10 years ago, 250w unit with separate ballast box which only contains the ballast and ignitor These old arcadia units are mercury vapour ballast, designed to run iwaski 6500k lamps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 Now that telecom have managed to put the New Zealand phone and data network back together, i can reply. It's frustrating when every second cell phone call you make gets a busy signal, the internet dies for half the day. Anyway. Capacitors on metal halides are completely optional. The provide nothing to the operation of the bulb. It's difficult to explain what they do, but here it is. They provide power factor correction. The value of the capacitor is matched to the inductance of the ballast. What this does is pulls the voltage and current waveforms into phase, so that, from the power companies perspective, electricity is used efficiently. With out the capacitor, extra "reactive" power is drawn through the power lines during one half cycle of the AC signal. Then on the other half cycle it is put back into the power lines. This extra power transfer is lossy, and costs the power supplier money. Here's more info http://home.earthlink.net/~jimlux/hv/pfc.htm Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 Now that telecom have managed to put the New Zealand phone and data network back together, i can reply. It's frustrating when every second cell phone call you make gets a busy signal, the internet dies for half the day. Hahahahaha welcome to my nightmare, spent most of the day up at Tory Street in DR mode. Todays outage has provided my team enought work to keep us going past Christmas. Poo. Pie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 DR, ha that's a bit of an understatement. It's alot of time to reclaw 99.999% uptime reputation. 50 years without downtime. And since when was two links considered a redundant system! So, will you be funding a tank upgrade out of all this new found work Pies? Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pies Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 Funding a new tank? I'd settle with keeping my job the way todays has gone. Back hoes and rats, FFS. Pie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brianemone Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 post hole diggers wonder what kind of bill that guy will get?? stock market had to close and the auckland airport had some problems as well i beleive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted June 20, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 If it was capacitors wouldn't it tend to have the problem with all bulbs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 It is highly unlikely it is the capacitors, even if the capacitor is bung, it wouldn't cause the bulbs to go out. Could be the starter. But most likely it's the bulbs. Either they are faulty, or not properly matched to the ballasts. Although most bulb ballast combinations work, some bulbs can be picky on their exact operating voltage. Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RnB Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 DR... we made over 4 billion in payments from DR location... worked like a dream.... no single vender can ever provide a redundant solution.. use multiple comms vendors! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 no single vender can ever provide a redundant solution.. use multiple comms vendors! Multiple comms vendors in NZ? Not if Telecom has anything to do with it :lol: . Seriously though, I think Telecom should be putting a bit more money into strengthening their network. Not that I know much about their network, but from an end user perspective, it doesn't seem as robust as a telco's network should be. Jetstream is dodgy at the best of times. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RnB Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 there are non telecom routes available.... in the North island WGTN/AKL that take almost completely diff paths...... united networks now vector??? not sure of south island situation.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drifty Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 telecoms jetstream is dodgy as they have oversold and therefore fried the network. I have complained that much about it I get free internet until they fix the problem which is scheduled sometime around 2007 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kermit Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 If it wasn't for Vodafone we'd be still using analogue mobile phones as Telecom only upgraded to Digital because Text messaging is so popular and telecom were missing out, Telecom were and still are selling/advertising T3G services to people and they only have a few sites capable of providing the service as they're still upgrading sites i know that christchurch area T3G service was only covered between the airport and university till not so long ago. I've heard that Vodafone are upgrading their site's to the next generation as we speek and you can count that ounce they start advertising it the coverage will be more superia to telecom's half upgrade. As you can tell not a fan of T even though we use them at home. Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brianemone Posted June 20, 2005 Report Share Posted June 20, 2005 As you can tell not a fan of T even though we use them at home lol thats the problem with NZ telecom this telecom that but at the end of the day it comes dow to choice, t3g should be NZ wide by the years end Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lduncan Posted June 21, 2005 Report Share Posted June 21, 2005 T3G service was only covered between the airport and university till not so long ago. It still doesn't work. Around the uni, i'm lucky to get 1 bar of signal, often no signal at all! That is poor. Oh, and don't get me started on jetstream, i've been trying for months to get telecom to fix the port at the exchange which my line is terminated, it's so dodgy that i often only connect at 96kbps!! Not what you call broadband! Layton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted June 21, 2005 Author Report Share Posted June 21, 2005 Awww, 96K, that's soo horrible...I can't even GET broadband here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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