Aquarium Lights Problems

[Jim Douglas]

I am troubleshooting my lights as they don't light and found that within the
bulb area there are a set of parts that are unfamiliar with me. They are in
series with the power line to each bulb and it looks like some type of light
bulb, no identification, 1" long and very black/discolored towards the tip,
wired in parallel with it device is a 1/2" plastic case thing that looks as
though it contains staples from a common household stapler, possibly some
type of inductor? What I have found from the mfg is that the wall wart holds
the ballast. If it matters the bulbs are 17" long and are marked F15T8, DWW,
RP

Thanks!

--
Jim Douglas
http://www.genesis-software.com
http://www.interactiveDesignSolutions.com
Latitude 32.96
Longitude -96.89

 

[Sam Goldwasser]

I am troubleshooting my lights as they don't light and found that within the
bulb area there are a set of parts that are unfamiliar with me. They are in
series with the power line to each bulb and it looks like some type of light
bulb, no identification, 1" long and very black/discolored towards the tip,
wired in parallel with it device is a 1/2" plastic case thing that looks as
though it contains staples from a common household stapler, possibly some
type of inductor? What I have found from the mfg is that the wall wart holds
the ballast. If it matters the bulbs are 17" long and are marked F15T8, DWW,
RP

From your description, the blackened thing sounds like a glow tube starter
and the staple thing sounds like a capacitor. But, it wouldn't be in series
with the lamp, but across the lamp connected to 1 set of the filament pins
at each end.

See:

http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/flamp.htm#wd

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[Jim Douglas]

Thanks for the info, the web site is great! I will be looking for a couple
of starters tomorrow. Again thanks for the info and the web site as I have
marked it for future reference.

 

[James Sweet]

Thanks for the info, the web site is great! I will be looking for a couple
of starters tomorrow. Again thanks for the info and the web site as I have
marked it for future reference.

You can get them at any hardware store, they'll be in little plastic or
aluminum cans a bit smaller than C batteries, you can open the can up fairly
easily if you want and you'll find those glow bottles inside which you can
mount exactly like the old one if desired, or you can get some starter
sockets and use the twist-lock starters as-is.

 

[Jim Douglas]

Found them at lowes, broke apart of little can and ripped out the parts I
needed, and that was the problem with the lights! Thanks all!