T5 Ho Light Fixture Broke, Arghhhhhh!

[Ruskull]

So my 30 inch long Coralife T5 HO light fixture just stopped working one day and luckily I happen to have a 24" Current T5 HO fixture to use temporarily.  Now my son's light fixture broke about a year ago and I successfully changed the ballast and it's been working ever since, knock on wood.  So I finally took the leap and shelled out $35 for a new ballast for the 36" unit.

Well I changed the ballast, wire for wire, with a new one which is the exact brand and specs but when I tested it, it only dimly flickered a little bit and then shut off.  I checked the bulbs and one of them, the Coralife Colormax, came apart in my hands!  the end basically fell off and there's some cakey junk inside.  Chinese made junk!  Now I'm starting to think it was the bulb all along and I got suckered into buying a new ballast and changing it out for nothing.  Anybody have a similar experience?

The unit is currently at my sign shop and one of the techs there is troubleshooting it.  The problem so far is that everything seems to be working correctly but he can't really check the bulbs themselves since we never use T5 florescent tubes in the signs we make.  Now I have to buy a couple of new bulbs just to see if that's the problem.  Does Home Depot or Lowe's even sell 30 inch T5 HO bulbs?  Probably not, and even if they do would they be the proper spectrum for plants?

I'm very tempted to gut this POS and change it over to LED's since I work at a sign shop and I already have them.  I would just need a 1 amp power supply that would fit inside the unit.  I could probably get that for about $25 or so.  The problem is all LED's are not created equal, they all have different amounts of light and different spectrums are available as well.  Beyond just visually looking at the amount of light, how can I easily make sure I don't over or under power the lighting for my plants?

Any help or encouragement would be greatly appreciated............ 

 

[techen]

You wont get T5 HO bulbs at at home depot but the normal light fixtures, Being there wattage is right will work fine for plants. Honestly, A lot of these plant T5s are overpriced and you can still get away with normal lights. Give it a try.
 
But LEDs are always a good upgrade, Always.

 

[Ruskull]

The first reply, thank you!
 
I agree, at this point I'd love to just use the housing, rip out the florescent nonsense, and mount some super bright LED pods inside!  Seems like the way to go for sure, especially since I already have the expensive part, the LED's.  The problem is I have multiple kinds, how to determine the best option?  I have bi-pods, tri-pods, and lines of them that are designed to replace florescent tubes in lighted sign cabinets.  Maybe I just answered my own question, just go with the ones designed to replace the tubes.

 

[Xzavier247]

I'm having the same problem lol. One of my four bulbs is out. So I changed one with a 10k 24watt tho bulb and it lit up. But the other still does not ignite. Ugh. So I switched the bulbs and nothing. So the ballast is already gone. Lasted 6 months. But I still have 3 bulbs running. Knock on wood. Once they're done I'm switching to us led satellite

 

[Ruskull]

Yeah, I'm going to get 2 new bulbs and if that doesn't work I'll return the bulbs and convert the unit to LED's..................lesson learned.  LED power supply units can also fail but they also can be bought for less than $20.  I get the LED's free from work so when they get dim I can just change them out.  The power supply units we use in our signs normally last many years.