Light problems

[FatMax]

i'm 7 wks into my grow and have been having light problems from week 2.I have a 120v 1k lumatek digital ballast burning a agrosun gold mh and a hortilux hps bulbs.I have taking ballast,hood and bulbs to store where I bought them and everything worked fine there,got them home and worked for a couple of days and now can't get either bulb to fire.have tried on 2 seperate timers and 2 seperate breakers in house,all other equip works at power source.any ideas?also was out of town last week for 4 days and i'm asumming the mh bulb didn't fire since it didn't come on sat,I switched it out with hps bulb ran it for 12 hrs now it won't work.how bad will this affect my girls?hopefully i'll get lights on by tues.thanks for any help

 

[PrairiePoet]

I would say there is a problem with the ballast. You might need to take it back, and ask them to run it for several days. Since it doesn't start to show problems for you right off.

Prairie

 

[Stank.Nuggs]

first off, is your ballast designed for switching in between bulbs? Does it have a MH/HPS switch on it? Also, I ran into a similar problem with a lumatek digital, I'd run the lights for around 12 hours and it would just shut off, and it turned out that it was overheating. I didnt have proper airflow to it to cool it down due to lack of room to hang it on the wall. Is yours sitting on the floor/carpet? Try setting it on a metal rack of some sort, almost as if it was a pan in the oven. That might help. As far as your plants, you said you ran the light for 12 hours, and your around week 7, so i'd assume your flowering or just entering the phase. Cannabis needs 12 hours of uninterupted darkness to induce the flowering cycle, it likes a regular schedule of "sun", but most importantly needs the regular dark schedule. Having a different on/off time everyday can cause alot of stress to the plant, possibly making your future female a hermaphrodite, or causing problems with nutrient intake and proper bud growth. If none of the above work, I, personally, would march back to the store with a "this shit doesn't work, i want my fucking money back, or an exchange on a new one." Good luck mang...