....try the obvious solution first.

Today I woke up and my metal halide was not on. Thought the timer burnt up. Nope, ballast was on and humming but no light.

So after turning it on and off five times I freaked. $80 bulb or $120 ballast is blown, wonderful. At least my birthday is the weekend. Birthday present? Hmmm....Icecap ballast would be awesome!

So I called Richard and I'm like "Dude, my metal halide won't fire!". I take it to him and he checks it out.

We place a spare bulb in the fixture and it fires up. Phew, ballast is good. Put the Phoenix bulb back in.....sure enough it fires.

Wonderful. I just freaked out for three hours all because of nothing. I could have taken the lousy bulb out, put it back in, and been done with it. But nooooo. I miss the obvious.

So when faced with a problem, try the obvious thing first even if it sounds stupid. Sort of made a fool of myself today freaking out.

On the flip side.....if it did burn out it would have given me a reason to order that 8 bulb T5HO fixture.

Sounds like something I would do!! LMAO!!

I had an Eheim that wanted to go for a ride once.  Either that or it was my fault.  I forget which.

Been there!  A student ordered a new set of PC bulbs before I could get to fixture to find the timer went out.  At least we can use the bulbs down the road. 

Glad it was an easy fix too!!