Why is my Aquatic Life Hybrid turning off

[Just_Pete]

All of a sudden the second half of my fixture is turning off.

First time I noticed it happen, I looked under the sump at my electrical connection and everything is good. Unplugged and plugged back into the same outlet and boom the lights came back on. All four where good.

About and hour or so passes, again same lights turn off. What?!?

I've been running these lights for a little less than a month and to the best of my knowledge this just started happening.

I felt the fixture around for an signs of overheating or weird plastic smells, nothing!

What could be wrong here? @AquaticLifeProducts anybody please help.

Is the ballast going bad here or something??? I'm using ATI bulbs, 2C+ & 2B+

IMG_2631 by Peter Hipsz, on Flickr

 

[Crabs McJones]

Double check that the connection socket on the bulbs are good and tight. Another possibility is a bad bulb. I believe they're run in series so when one doesn't work neither does the other.

 

[Just_Pete]

Double check that the connection socket on the bulbs are good and tight. Another possibility is a bad bulb. I believe they're run in series so when one doesn't work neither does the other.

Connections are tight and good. Maybe it is a bad bulb?

Is there a way to tell if one of the bulbs are bad? They both light up when I unplug and plug back in.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Connections are tight and good. Maybe it is a bad bulb?

Is there a way to tell if one of the bulbs are bad? They both light up when I unplug and plug back in.

So they start up and then die off? Either bulb or ballast would be my guess

 

[Just_Pete]

So they start up and then die off? Either bulb or ballast would be my guess

UGH! This fixture is less than a month old. I only run them 4hrs a day >

Yea the bulbs come back on when I unplug and plug back in. Then in less than an hour they go off again.

Is it common for ballast or bulbs to go first?

 

[Crabs McJones]

UGH! This fixture is less than a month old. I only run them 4hrs a day :mad:

Yea the bulbs come back on when I unplug and plug back in. Then in less than an hour they go off again.

Is it common for ballast or bulbs to go first?

More common bulbs, but well see if @AquaticLifeProducts chimes in with some ideas

 

[Just_Pete]

In the meantime, I'll switch the "working bulbs" in place of the none working side and see if that the culprit.

Thanks for your help @Crabs Mcjones

 

[Crabs McJones]

In the meantime, I'll switch the "working bulbs" in place of the none working side and see if that the culprit.

Thanks for your help @Crabs Mcjones

Yup, switch around the bulbs, if the problem moves from one side of the fixture to the other, you know the bulbs are your culprit

 

[Just_Pete]

Yup, switch around the bulbs, if the problem moves from one side of the fixture to the other, you know the bulbs are your culprit

Ok well after switching the bulbs from one side to the other, all four bulbs stayed on tonight. Weird. Might of been a loose connection? Idk seems a little weird that all of a sudden the connection got loose when the snaps that hold the bulbs are tight and the connection for the bulbs themselves are pretty tight with no wiggle room.

I’ll keep an eye on it and see what tomorrow brings.

I contacted customer support via phone as well and they got back to me within the hour. They suggested swapping bulbs too and if that didn’t work, they would send me a new section of the fixture.

I learned that the ballasts have a feature in them that detect a faulty bulb. If a bulb starts goingor there’s an issue, the ballast will auto shut off as to not continue to fry the fixture or worse.

 

[Just_Pete]

And we’re off. This morning lights came on then about an hour or so later, the same section turned off. Doesn’t seem to be the bulbs. I’m guessing ballasts?

Now here’s the thing... I did the one wire mod when I first setup the lights. Meaning I spliced one fixture to the other so I wouldn’t have to run two electric plugs. I soldered all my connection and heat shrunk everything. All was running good up until yesterday. So it can’t be a faulty wiring job, right? I mean the fixture was running just fine for about a month and then all of a sudden this. Ugh!

I’m gonna contact @AquaticLifeProducts and see what they say. My warranty is surely voided by my diy one wire mod. I’m hoping they’ll work with me though. There’s other people here that have done the one wire mod and things seem to be just fine, right?

 

[Crabs McJones]

And we’re off. This morning lights came on then about an hour or so later, the same section turned off. Doesn’t seem to be the bulbs. I’m guessing ballasts?

Now here’s the thing... I did the one wire mod when I first setup the lights. Meaning I spliced one fixture to the other so I wouldn’t have to run two electric plugs. I soldered all my connection and heat shrunk everything. All was running good up until yesterday. So it can’t be a faulty wiring job, right? I mean the fixture was running just fine for about a month and then all of a sudden this. Ugh!

I’m gonna contact @AquaticLifeProducts and see what they say. My warranty is surely voided by my diy one wire mod. I’m hoping they’ll work with me though. There’s other people here that have done the one wire mod and things seem to be just fine, right?

I did the one wire mod and never had an issue. I would double check all your connections just to be safe. But generally on something like that either it works or it doesn't, there isn't much inbetween.

 

[Just_Pete]

I did the one wire mod and never had an issue. I would double check all your connections just to be safe. But generally on something like that either it works or it doesn't, there isn't much inbetween.

So I took the fixture apart, and all of my connections seem to be in place. However I am questioning the yellow wire connections for the bulbs. I think I might have switched them around when I did the one wire mod. Not sure if it makes a difference meaning one yellow connection is supposed to go to one bulb while the other goes to the second bulb? Like are they suppose to be in a series?

Any way... everything is hooked back up and lights are on. Hoping this time they stay on.