Need a good light tech!!

[starboard]

I have a 6 bulb Coralvue 36" light I was trying to sell which has a set of bulbs that I can't seem to get working. I swapped out the ballast , but it was swapped from a 39 watt to a 54 watt ballast because it was the only ballast I could find by the same manufacturer. At this point I am frustrated with it and would like to get it fixed so that I can use it. Is there anyone good with diagnosing and/or repairing these lights? I'm willing to pay for the repair so pm me with any leads you can think of. I am in Madison so the closer the better
Thank you

[jelly]

how old is the light. what kind of ballast is the old one and new one.

[starboard]

The light is a little over a year old I think. I bought it used so to be specific I don't know exactly. The old ballast is a Sheng Feng Electronic ballast model SF B239 2x39W and the replacement I was sent was a Model SF B254 2x54W.
Would the different wattage matter? Looks like the ballasts are 2 years old from the date stamped on them.

[Rueg]

And you bought new 54w bulbs?

[starboard]

No same 39w bulbs. I did hook up both ballasts and nothing worked. Why the guy sent me a 54 watt is beyond me , maybe that's all he had idk. I know when I tried to find a 39watt ballast by the same manufacturer online I couldn't find one just found the 54watt by the same manufacturer

[Rueg]

54w ballast and 39w bulbs - don't think that will work. You could have some other type of issue, but if everything else is working - you are going to blow your 39w bulbs running 54w thru them.

[starboard]

yea, they never even powered on when I switched to see . Where could I get a ballast locally?

[Spazdad]

Not sure why It's not working but I also don't think the bulbs will go bad either. Don't icecap overdrive the bulb too.

[Rueg]

The IceCap ballasts - you can overdrive the bulbs in certain cases - but that is the only ballast I have ever heard of that can do that.

[Socratic Monologue]

Any instant start ballast can be used to overdrive fluorescent lamps. That said, what starboard is doing is not exactly overdriving (at least in the sense used by most folks who, like me, use creative wiring schemes to drive NO lamps at HO and near-VHO wattages and outputs). Rueg, unless you have some evidence or electric theory knowledge to suspect driving a 39w lamp with a 54w ballast to be dangerous, I'm going to respectfully disagree with you. I currently drive 32w T8 lamps at upwards of 60w with no ill effects, and have for years, as do many people (planted tank folks do this often).

Starboard, you don't need a ballast by the same manufacturer; any appropriate wattage T5HO ballast will do (in fact, upgrading after a ballast failure is a good time to do so). But, I know of no reason why that 54w ballast shouldn't drive your lamps just fine. If you want to troubleshoot the thing, here's how I'd proceed:

-- hook the new ballast up to a circuit you know works. This will test to see if the ballast itself works.
-- hook up one of the ballasts you have that you know works (that is, one of the other ballasts in the fixture) to the circuit that you currently have the new ballast on. This will test all the components of that circuit -- the lamps, the wiring, the sockets, the switch.

Either you're going to find that your new ballast doesn't work, or that some component of the circuit is shot. If the latter is the case, I'd get a cheap multimeter and test each part for continuity. If you don't want to get a MM, you could try bypassing the switch to see if that's the bad part, but testing wiring and sockets might be harder without a meter.

[Rueg]

Nope - no proof. I just figured with the cheap ballasts they stick in those lights - probably not a good idea to overdrive your bulbs with that ballast. IceCaps I know you can overdrive bulbs with - did it myself at one time - but those are great ballasts.

[starboard]

Sweet! Gives me a place to start.thanks I will post results.