Hey Blades and Bladettes, Friday I switched over to a HP sodium bulb and everything went fine and by that I mean the usual orange/yellow bright output of lumens but on day two, instead of firing up like normal, the bulb was barely glowing with a plasma looking center core and was otherwise not lit. I am using the hydrofarm daystar ac covertable light that handles MH and HPS. I have the switch on HPS. Just wondered if this ever happened to anyone else? The bulb I ordered was a Ultra Sun 1000 watt HPS asni S52. I have already started the process of doing an exchange guessing the light is defective. In the meantime, my 1000 watt MH is back in action and working fine keeping the girls growing. (Which means hopefully that my lighting system and ballast still work fine!) I would love to hear if anyone has any first hand experience with a similar problem. Thanks in advance, Thundrstrike420
Gotta be the bulb...Bring in the ballast if you can to your local hydro store and I'm sure they can take a quick look at it. Maybe try another HPS bulb.
Thanks omdogg I have replacement HP sodium bulbs on the way. As I mentioned, my mh bulb is cranking so I think its the bulb
Hi Jassica, I already have the dual capable mh/HP sodium fixture and if you look at my plants, you will see why I am so happy with that set up except for this one bulb glitch. Thanks for the idea!
sounds like the striker wasnt getting hot enough to make contact and actually fire the bulb. if the lamp is only a few days old then i would contact whom ever you purchased it from and have them replace it. a bit of information on your ballast is to unplug it completely before flipping your switch from MH to HPS. if you flip the switch while power is going to the unit you take the risk of burning out the selector switch and the ballast itself.