Faulty ballast??

[Duds]

Well everyday since maybe 2-3 weeks my mom has been claiming that the metal halides turn off at 4:30 then about 30 minutes later they turn back on, I thought ok maybe they over heat or something i thought nothing of it, then today they turned off around 3:30 and my dad saw it so I took the bulb out and the bulb seemed fine cleaned it with denatured acohol anyway just in case cleaned the uv protective glass (needed a clean anyway) then plugged the metal halides back in they fired up looked great then maybe 10-20 minutes later when i was messing around with something else i noticed the metal halides turned off again, I can see in the pendant that the bulb is still trying to fire up, so I dont think it is the bulb, so i left it unplugged for the night

what do you guys think? ballast? bulb? something else?

any help is appreciated
Thanks
Duds

 

[smcnally]

How old is the bulb? I've had bulbs do that before and it was the bulb. It could be the ballast too, but if the bulb is old, I would suspect the bulb first.

 

[Duds]

the bulb is about 10 months old, so i guess it could be the bulb actually i didnt think it has been that logn with that bulb
i'll look into a new bulb (a lot cheaper fix than a new ballast)
Thanks
Duds

 

[Liam]

Check your timer too Duds.

 

[Duds]

Check your timer too Duds.

thats the first thing my dad did
Duds

 

[Dave]

What are you running for bulbs. Someone in the area might have a spare you can use to isolate the problem.

 

[Cheetos]

Didn't you just recently add the MH setup to your tank? Did you use used bulbs and are you sure how old there were before you installed them? My guess would be the bulb. Try a new one and rule that out before you get into the ballast!

 

[Duds]

Didn't you just recently add the MH setup to your tank? Did you use used bulbs and are you sure how old there were before you installed them? My guess would be the bulb. Try a new one and rule that out before you get into the ballast!

i ordered the bulb, it was a used bulb used previously for 6 months then with me 4 months
Duds

 

[Duds]

well i got the bulb a couple days ago and I put it in and plugged it in and it didnt fire up at all, now I think it is the ballast unless anyone else has other ideas, andone know of a place to buy metal halide ballasts cheap??
Thanks
Duds

 

[willray]

Hellolights.com is very a good source for ballasts and diy stuff. Re-check all the connections that you can.How old is the ballast?If it's not that old I'm leaning towards a bad connection somewhere.

 

[Duds]

i checked all the connections and then my dad checked the amount of volts coming from the ballast and going to the light and it was very low, I will check hellolights.com out thanks for the link
Duds