Unfortunately, you can't. The ANSI number is needed (starts with a M) to know what type of ballast it is. All ballasts in the US should have it printed somewhere, but sometimes it burns or peels off.
Oh, I should mention the identification should be on the ballast itself. Most casings won't have anything on it. You'd need to open up the casing to find out, but I only recommend this if you know how to work around electricity. It may be best to contact the manufacturer and ask.
I would contact the manufacturer if I know who it was. All I really know is that there are two ballasts running 2-60", 140w vho's and 3-175w MH's all enclosed within one canopy. The ballasts are plain black boxes without any labels. I am not really sure of the age, but my guess is that it is in the 6-8 yr old range. The person I bought it from didn't know that there was different types of MH ballasts. My guess is that it is a probe start ballast. Maybe its time to become an electrican for the day. :twisted:
It's most likely standard probe-start M59 ballast for the 175s. They rarely come in any other way. These ballasts will run most of the bulbs sold to aquarists.
