T5 out; ballast malfunction suspected

Just noticed that today, while my actinics were on, my 10K's failed to go on on my 48" 4-bulb T5 Nova Extreme I tried removing the timer and a different outlet. I think one of the ballasts are dead, which would explain why half the lights are out. I've only had the thing for a little under 2 years. Is it common for T5 (or Current) ballasts to die so quick? What can I do to fix it? I can switch the bulbs so the 10K's are running instead: a temporary fix at best. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

contact the manufacturer they should help ya !

 

I am doing just that, but since the warranty's up, I think the only "help" they'll be able to provide is to sell me another (crappy) ballast or two.

Since I switched the bulbs, another one is out and the remaining bulb is flickering steadily. I don't think my coral are going to make it for very long.

 

Try swapping out the bulbs and make sure the bulbs are good, 2yrs is past the life expectency of T5 bulbs, I think its 18 months as far as PAR is concerned after that, the bulbs are junk for corals.

If you swap out the bulbs and they work in the sockets for the actinics, then yes, its either ballast or the switch itself. If they do not work, then its the bulbs. Before you swap them out, try swapping the plugs out, plug the 10,000K's in where you have the actinics plugged in before anything else, cause timers are notorious for malfunctioning out.

 

Swapped bulbs/sockets and removed the timer and only the two fixtures work (those two do work now that I've jiggled the lights in them a bit). So my 2 10,000 K's are up and running, and since the sockets were on a timer (so I never turned them off) I believe it is the ballast. Do T5 ballasts normally have such a short life, or does anyone think there is a ballast quality or placement problem in the Nova Extreme? Looks like I'm buying a new T5 ballast...any suggestions on that front?

 

if you can wiggle it and it works, thats not the ballast. That sounds more like the end caps messing up or having a lose connection. Try unplugging everything and take a fine wire brush and try cleaning the sockets and bulbs connectors. If the bulbs are more then 18 months old, they need to be replaced anyways. Current, the company that makes Nova Extreme is known for quality lighting, I have never heard of their ballasts having problems.

 

with it being 2 yrs old, there is a number of things it could be. Even if they are always on in the timer, when the timer cuts them off, there is no power going to them just like you had turned it off yourself. So that shouldnt make a difference, if anything, less wear and tear on it from not being manually switched on and off.

 

The Nova Extreme is a two-ballast system, each connected to two bulbs. The two sockets containing the 10,00K bulbs connected to one of the ballasts stopped working. It's not the bulbs: the 10K's worked in the good fixture (although I had to jiggle it a little bit) and the actinics still did not work on the bad fixture. It's not the power outlet: the good ballast still works when plugged into the outlet where the bad ballast was. It's not the timer: the bad ballast still does not work without it and the good ballast works with it.

So I'm 99% sure the problem is either some sort of fried connection (if I'm lucky) or the ballast. My family knows an electrician, so we're thinking of letting him look at it and see if he can tell us what the problem is.

 

If you had to jiggle it to make it work, that means its not a good connection. 2 years of salt spray and evaporation could easily had made it a bad a connection, and when you jiggled it, you helped clean off the connectors on the bulbs. That is why I suggested cleaning it with a wire brush UNPLUGGED of course, lol.

 

I have the nova extreme T5HO 4x54w system.