# Coralife Ballast Fix



## BG1772 (Jul 2, 2009)

I had the same problem with my Coralife Ballast and performed a very similar fix. It worked for a couple weeks then stopped working again. I then accidentially found that two of the solder joints for the wires going to the bulbs were arcing. I coated all of those solder joints with silcone. This kept the Ballast working for a couple more months and then it started not firing again. At this point I was annoyed with it and bought a workhorse 5.

I hope your fix works better than mine did.


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## sparkysko (Jun 11, 2004)

It worked until I put it back in it's case, then it tripped the GFI . More fiddling to go


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## sparkysko (Jun 11, 2004)

Okay, another fix for these ballasts. I pinched one of the light wires which tripped GFI and burned up the board. A nice misting of copper everywhere.....

Apparently these boards have F1 on them, which is a thin copper trace on the board. Scraped all the burn marks off with a wire brush and soldered a copper braid against the burnt out copper for F1. F1 I believe is located in the same area as highlighted in red above. Simple fix and probably the most likely to go out on these ballasts. These ballasts look so simple, I bet you could replace any component that would burn out in them with something from radioshack...

Everything lights up now. Hurray.


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## Justintoxicated (Oct 18, 2006)

I just pulled my light apart after replacing the bulb no longer worked.

My Ballast has a blown fuse.

Now of course they don't make the fuse easily replaceable as it is soldered to the board.

So I figured I would bypass the fuse to see if soldering a new one in place would do any good. With an insulated tool I arced across the fuse and there was a loud flash and a pop then a burning smell  Melted the printed circuit on the board. 

Guess I need a new ballast or should I just buy a new light?

* Note - indeed the balasts are simple but I have no idea which component needs to be replaced, plus now I have more potential problems since I melted part of the board, who knows what else it might have taken out with it.

http://www.amazon.com/Coralife-Aqualight-Ballast-1X65W-Model/dp/B004OQQRVC

seems pricy... $73 shipped. Probably close to what I paid for the light?

It's out of a single 65 watt CF light bulb. Any ideas what to replace it with?


ahha! LOL the entire light fixture is cheaper than the ballast!
http://www.amazon.com/Coralife-Aqualight-Compact-Fluorescent-Fixture/dp/B005BSYNAE


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## [email protected] (Jul 17, 2008)

Justintoxicated said:


> It's out of a single 65 watt CF light bulb. Any ideas what to replace it with?
> http://www.amazon.com/Coralife-Aqualight-Compact-Fluorescent-Fixture/dp/B005BSYNAE


An option is using an off the shelf two tube ballast rated for T8 lamps. 
You'd wire it in over drive mode. 
That was common for saltwater light fixture companies, in the past. 
Fulham's diagram 12 for a Workhorse 5 shows the wiring. 

Here is a link to a Coralife single lalmp ballast
http://www.amazon.com/Coralife-Aqua...RS/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1330197388&sr=8-19 

If you go to fulham.com and find diagram 11 for a Workhorse 5, it will show how to wire for two 55 watt power compact lamps. 
Here is a link to a wired kit.
http://www.amazon.com/ORBIT-BALLAST...0N9U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330197339&sr=8-1


Your local electrical wholesaler can probably order ballasts for you if you don't want to order on line.


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## Justintoxicated (Oct 18, 2006)

[email protected] said:


> An option is using an off the shelf two tube ballast rated for T8 lamps.
> You'd wire it in over drive mode.
> That was common for saltwater light fixture companies, in the past.
> Fulham's diagram 12 for a Workhorse 5 shows the wiring.
> ...


Love the ideas! Do you think that the 1x65 watt ballast you listed there would do as good a job as the original? (It's a different model number) but I have some double sided tape that says it will mount up fine 

Otherwise a new light is cheaper than buying the original ballast (Plus I get a free bulb!). 

I don't know how much longer I will have this tank for, as I have plans to combine the 2 tanks I have into a larger tank. I just don't have the funds, so it's kinda far down on my list right now. I'm thinking to stick with one large lamp though, since I already have a spare bulb now. 

The acrylic top on my aquacube is cracked from heat cycles over the years and replacement's are no longer available for the 24 gallon version  So now that moisture will be getting into the lid over time I'm guessing those ballasts will be short lived as well. Once those go it will be time for a new tank one way or another I suppose.


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## Justintoxicated (Oct 18, 2006)

I ended up just ordering a new light. $57 shipped for a complete new light but with a black housing instead of the gold one. The proper ballast alone sells for more money, although I'm not sure what the difference between the white one linked above and the one with the removable metal case is that I I was looking at replacing. Maybe the gray metal cased ones are better? I have no idea.

Maybe I will play with this ballast later and see if I can get this light working again.

For the price of these ballasts you would think they would last longer.

I could not figure out how to use the fulham site.


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