# Power compact question.



## ACBerb (Mar 18, 2012)

I have two power compact 48" single strip 2X65W coralife's. I used them on an old tank, one for about 1 year the other for about 8 months. I then bought a different tank (and new bigger PC light's) and put them in storage for the last 4-5 years. I have another tank now that uses 48" lights so I bought 4 new PC bulb's from J&L the cheaper URI bulbs. I never changed the original coralife bulb's and obviously the year old lamp was overdue for new bulb's. When I took out the original bulb's it was very hard to remove them three of the four bulbs "came apart". I'm sure the combination of the age of the bulb's and the corrosive nature of the salt water played a part in the hard removal. My problem is when I installed the new bulbs into both fixtures, nothing worked! One bulb made a short flicker and that was it. So I put in the one original bulb and it worked fine... so then I figured I had a bulb problem. I removed the original bulb and put it in the other side of the fixture and it did nothing... hmm. Fed up I installed the two new bulb's (and then shortly after the one side "new" bulb, lit up) and mounted it back into my canopy and plugged it into my timer. The next morning both bulb's worked!?!?!? Seriously!
Point of my long story is to see if anyone here has had these kinda problems with power compacts before? What should I do with the other fixture... plug in the new bulb's mount it in my canopy and hope they turn on the next day? Seems like a risk if it doesn't work, I am removing old standard fluorescent bulb's and installing the PC's... better weak light then none at all. Would electrical contact cleaner and maybe some di-electric grease be worth while, has anyone else used this on older light contact's?
Any help would be appreciated, Thanks.


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

Hello. look at the contacts in the fixture. i would guess they are rusted. electricity does not conduct through rust well. some contact cleaner might work but you might have to sand the rust away from the contacts. but if you sand to much you might damage the contact. so i would try a light sanding and try the lights again. Hope that helps. Cheers


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

I have the same light but a smaller version. I had to replace the ballast inside because I was having similiar problems. I was running open top so some water splash 
made its way into the light over time. I had it repaired at Rogers in surrey. It was a few years ago. I think king eds sells coralife balasts for it if you want to tackle the job yourself or they might be able to repair it aswell. 

If you have a volt meter and youre handy you could probably figure out if its a ballast problem or a conection problem. Clean up the connections with sand paper and di electric grease. Sounds like you have a ballast problem though


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## ACBerb (Mar 18, 2012)

Thanks Scherb, the contacts look OK, but it's really hard to see inside them as they are the tiny little pin style connectors. I will try to give the contacts a good cleaning and then maybe put the fixture aside and turn it on and hopefully it will work (instantly or after a while).


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## ACBerb (Mar 18, 2012)

@jbyoung00008, yeah I was wondering if the ballast might be shot although they were both working fine before I put them away in storage. Seems to me like I could pick up a used fixture for as cheap as the trouble and cost of fixing the ballast... but we'll see, thanks!


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

I dont think it costs too much to replace the ballast. I have seen some cheap 48" fixtures for sale on bcaquaria

If you decide to change fixtures canadian aquatics was selling odyssea 48" 3 bulb 54w with led moonlights and it has a built in timer. I just picked 1 up and so did a buddy. So far well worth the $130


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## ACBerb (Mar 18, 2012)

Wow nice, I don't see it on their website... gotta link?


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

ACBerb said:


> Wow nice, I don't see it on their website... gotta link?


I didnt see it on there either when I checked earlier. It was on there last week. Patrick did mention the 2 we bought were the last of them but I assumed he would be getting more. They are the same as the odyssea 36" they have on the webpage. You can msg Charles or Mykiss and ask if they are getting more. It was $130 including tax. The coralife light thats similiar to it retails for $389 plus tax NO digital timer. Overall the light seems great. Its frame isnt as strong as the coralife but for 1/4 the price im happy with it. I have seen them online for around that price but I figured why not support some local guys instead.


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