blue vs red wires on electronic ballast

[astroboy]

Hello,

 

I'm sorry for what is probably a vague question. A couple days ago two of the four bulbs on my freshwater planted tank went out. Everything looks good so I'm pretty sure one of the two ballasts are bad. The ballast model is Yoneng A1-7, powers two T5 54 watt bulbs. It's a solid state electronic ballast, sells for $80 from marineandreef; can't find it anywhere else. The lighting fixture is a wavepoint.

 

I'd like to replace the ballast with something a bit less pricey and better quality. It's three years old, I think it should have lasted longer than that. I've found plenty of ballasts for T5 bulbs, but they all have red and blue wires coming out of one end. The A1-7 has only two reds and a yellow. 

 

Can anyone tell me why it is that the A1-7 has no blue wires? What are the blue wires for? I kind of hate to start wiring stuff up and have it burn down the house when I plug it in. 

 

Thanks,

 

Mark

[mogurnda]

My experience with ballasts is almost entirely with Workhorses, but this may help.  For each configuration, Fulham provides a wiring diagram, which has most certainly kept me out of trouble.  For two 54 watt T5s, a Workhorse 5 will cost you less than $30, and then just follow the instructions to wire it up.

HTH

 

PS.  No idea about the blue wires.  If you are replacing with a different ballast, you don't really need to know.

[John Ford]

There are series ballast and parallel ballast. The color coding has to do with how the tombstones (light sockets) are wired. All Ballast I have ever worked with come with a diagram and as long as you follow that, you should be ok. Sometimes you have to rewire the sockets to match the ballast..

[WheresTheReef]

It's likely the ballast, but can you swap the connectors to use the "good" ballast just to make sure? In some cases, endcaps can go bad due to moister damage. As stated above, each ballast comes with color-coded wires to make it easier to connect the bulbs correctly. Color only matters in the way everything is connected. 

 

If you swap out with a different ballast then I would pay attention to the footprint/size to make sure it fits in the case. Also, some ballasts (I believe mostly instant start ballasts) require shunted endcaps. Shunted is where both pins within the end-cap are connected. Other ballasts require non-shunted endcaps so make sure you get a matching ballast for the endcaps you have.

[Rob A]

I have a bunch of t8 ballasts where I work and they have red and blue wires (in addition to the black and white power wire).

My twin tube ballast has 2 blues and 1 red. The red goes to one end of both bulbs and the blues each go to the other end, one blue wire per bulb. I have some t5 work horse which has red and yellow. In that case the yellow is connected to all the bulbs at one end and the reds go 1 red wire to each bulb.