Help! My lights wont work!

[FishFreak]

I recently moved and when I started setting my tank back up I discovered that my light fixture no longer works. It was working when it got packed and it shows no signs of getting beat up. I suspect the ballast got damaged. The fixture was purchased about two years ago online from Aquatraders. I has 2 175w MH and 2 96w CF. Unfortunately Aquatraders does not sell replacement parts for this fixture. If anyone has any suggestions as what the problem could be, please let me know. It is not my bulbs because I packed them myself in a wood crate stuffed with bubble wrap.

 

I am considering swithching to T5 or T6 HO lights. What would be enough for a 75G tank? What types of corals could I keep with this type of lighting? Im currently looking at replacing the MH with two 216w T6 HO fixtures. Each has 4 54w bulbs and 6 duel LED moonlights. In addition to these I plan to continue using the 2 36w T5s that I currently have still in operational condition.

 

Sorry for the long babble filled post but as you might have guessed, this whole situation has me ticked off to no end.

Any help/sugestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

[mexicanjavafish]

with 6 t5's over a 75 you could have pretty much any coral soft or stony you wanted. You can also if you are sure it's the ballast just use a different brand ballast and save the fixture and bulbs .

Welcome to the club and area by the way. Consider becoming a full member it's very well worth it!

Hope I've helped you out

[davelin315]

Hmmm... does anything still work? If not, then I'd suspect that something went drastically wrong in your move. Either that or some wires got pulled loose. Open it up and see if wires have come loose. If you are not comfortable in checking them, post up where you live and there are typically people who will take a look at it for you. I suspect that something simply got jarred loose if out of 4 bulbs, none of them works. Either that or somebody really messed up in moving it!

 

By the way, you've probably got 4 separate ballasts in there, at the very least you have 2 as the compact fluorescent and the metal halide won't run off the same one in most, if not all, circumstances (I say most just because I suppose there could be some sort of electronic ballast designed to run both MH and CF, but I really doubt that there is).

[treesprite]

Could it just be the switch? I thought my old fixture was broken but it turned out just to be that, so I got a new one at Radio Shack.