I Need Help

[jasonkozey]

My 250w ballast stopped working early last week. I have been working closely with J&L (great customer service & help). THey have got PFO lighting to contact me directly to help resolve the problem quickly. Long story short it turns out that I may have a bulb mismatch. I was running an usio bulb but they are supposed to be run on a pulse start ballast. I just have a magnetic normal ballast.

DOES ANYBOD have an old used regular start bulb that I can just borrow for like 5 min to see if my ballast works? They even sent me out a new starter cap for free to make sure that wasn't it & it still didn't work.

I also tried to change the bulb and it still didn't work. I bought a sun aquatics bulb (used) & apparently those say they don't need a pulse start but often do!

If anyone can help please let me know. My tank has been without proper light now for almost 2 weeks!

Thanks, Jason Kozey

[Invigor]

just stopped working, or stopped because you changed bulbs? sun aquatics need pulse for sure. I don't know if it's possible, but next time you're on the phone with PFO ask them if you can't just throw an ignitor in line with your ballast..if you can, problem solved...if you can't, return your ballast and get an M80.

if you end up perhaps selling your ushios because of this..... :D

[jasonkozey]

1st the Ushio just stopped working so i bought a sun aquatics bulb off this site. That didn't work either. I just got back from a lighting store and they let me test out a normal bulb there. The bulb started. I've had this ballast for over a year so no I can't return it.

Any ways, at least I know it works but now I got 2-250w Pulse start bulbs for sale! 1 Ushio & 1-Sun Aquatics

Turns out the Usio I was using should be run on a pulse start. Sometimes this will run with out a pulse. Thats why it worked for me for about 8months. Jon if you want to buy that Usio its a 10k bulb. I run it for about 6hrs a day for 8months. Still very white color. Supposed to keep its color for over 2years.

Let me know what if you're interested.

[jasonkozey]

I'd just like to post a little note about the great experience I just had dealing with J&L aquatics & PFO lighting. Both companies worked very hard & quickly to help me fix my lighting problem. They rushed all shipping and contacted me as soon as stores opened. They said they would get back to me with answers & they did. Between the two companies we found my problem and my lights will be back up as soon as the proper bulb comes in. Its nice to know that j&l will be there to help you out when there is a problem.
I don't know what else to write but I just wanted to point out they made a huge effort to help me with my problems & I wanted that point to come across, because I really appreciated it. As well my UV bulb quit after a few months and they shipped that out free of charge as well!

Jason Kozey

[Invigor]

I'll second the props to JL and PFO, I had issues and they were solved incredibly fast by their service departments.

As for the bulb, I dunno, some day if you're kickin around with nothin better to do, I wouldn't mind firing that ushio to see what it looks like next to my S.A bulbs...the s.a.'s are pretty stinkin bright. only ushio and xm tested higher than s.a.

Still find it strange it worked for 8 months and just stopped now..