Hi Guys,

I am hoping to find some answers in this forum. I recently bought a 40w submersible UV lamp (Aquazonic) for my fish pond. After about 20 days, the unit stopped working. I inspected the bulb and found no trace of filament burnout. The ballast (power pack) that it came with smelled burnt and I suspect that this is what was defective. The place I bought it from does not give out any warranty and to make things worse, they do not sell spare parts.

I would like to make use of the bulb until it burns out and I thought of using electronic ballasts that are locally available which are used for the common fluorescent 40W bulbs with 4 prongs (2 on each end).

My problem is this; upon inspecting the defective ballast and the UV bulb, there are only 2 pins where the defective ballast connects to the bulb. The locally available e-ballast has 4 leads that would go to each of the 4 pins of the common fluorescent bulb. Can I use this type of ballast for the 2 pin UV lamp that I have? If so, which of the 4 leads from the ballast should go to the 2 pins that are on the UV Bulb?

I would greatly appreciate any input regarding this matter. Thank you.

 

Ballast's are not universal, each type of lamp takes a specific ballast. If your in the US you can take the lamp and ballast to a Graingers; http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/wwg/start.shtml to possibly get a suitable replacement.

 

I use a 9W UV in my pond, though I have a small pond. 13W units are available on EBay fir about 30 bucks apiece. They come with internal pumps, so no plumbing, just have ti run an extension cord to it and it runs itself.

For 30 bucks when mine dies I just get another. They last me a year or two and I only need to use it for a month or two in the spring (until the water plants take charge).

 

Thank you Shortbus and ErnieM,

I am in the Philippines and we do not have specialty stores carrying a variety of ballasts and electronic equipments. I just feel bad that I spent 3400 pesos (80 USD) for an equipment which lasted only 20 days. Am trying to make it worth it by finding another way to light the bulb up since the place I bought it from do not have spare parts.

I guess I am at a loss with this UV lamp. I opened up the broken "ballast" and found a bulging "solid piece" of black material. no circuit boards inside. Is it possible that this power supply is not a ballast but just a capacitor?

Again thank you for your posts on my queries.

 

No, UV lamps require a ballast. BTW, doesn't UV hurt the fish?

 

That solid piece of black material is a "potting compound," an epoxy covering surrounding the actual ballast circuit. It is there for protection (both you from high voltage and the circuit from moisture) and sometimes just to hide what they did so you can't copy.

Sorry your unit went bad so soon.

I much prefer to kill algae by out competing it with floating plants, can you use something like that?

Brownie: the UV is enclosed and illuminates a stream of water send from the filter pump so it can kill algae and keep the water looking clear.