Flickering flouescent

[Rainmaker69]

The light strip on my 33 gallon tank has been flickering off and on intermittently lately. It started out with a slight cut out and has progressed to a 10-15 second cut out over the past month. It has got to the point where I was worried about shorting out and causing a fire so I pulled it off this morning and replaced it with my only other option, a 10 gallon incadescent light strip with 2 10W screw type flourescents. Has anyone else experienced this? What could cause this? It is the package light from a Petcetera starter kit if that helps with a 20W T8 natural daylight Eclipse bulb, 24", and about 9 months old.

[FishBrain]

Sounds like the ballast to me.

but it is worth trying a new bulb first!!

[Doc_Polit]

Hey rainmaker69,

I used to sell electrical for a living so I'll offer my $0.02

IMO, it sounds like the fluorescent starter is the problem, rather than the bulb or ballast. This is a cheap and easy fix.

Electrical vendors or decent aquarium stores carry these starters as standard stock items. (In case you don't know, the starter is a white (usually) plastic cylinder with two metal pins on the end.)

I would try this first, before shelling out the $$$ for other parts.

Keep us posted!

Doc_Polit

[Rainmaker69]

Thanks, Doc. I appreciate your explaining what a starter is, as I only know one thing about electricity. Nothing! :thumbs: I will check that out first then move on to the other components. Thanks for all replies.