diff --git a/apps/api/app/api/routes/health.py b/apps/api/app/api/routes/health.py
index e22c59eee..ce9e8cb33 100644
--- a/apps/api/app/api/routes/health.py
+++ b/apps/api/app/api/routes/health.py
@@ -9,6 +9,11 @@ from fastapi.responses import JSONResponse
 router = APIRouter(tags=["Health"])
 
 
+
+def _pg_url(url: str) -> str:
+    """Convert SQLAlchemy URL (postgresql+psycopg://...) to libpq connection string."""
+    return url.replace("postgresql+psycopg://", "postgresql://", 1).replace("postgresql+psycopg2://", "postgresql://", 1)
+
 @router.get("/health", status_code=status.HTTP_200_OK)
 async def health_check():
     return {
@@ -49,7 +54,7 @@ async def _check_database() -> dict:
             "message": "Using in-memory database",
         }
     try:
-        conn = psycopg.connect(settings.DATABASE_URL, connect_timeout=3)
+        conn = psycopg.connect(_pg_url(settings.DATABASE_URL), connect_timeout=3)
         with conn.cursor() as cur:
             cur.execute("SELECT 1")
             cur.fetchone()
@@ -124,7 +129,7 @@ async def _check_migrations() -> dict:
             "message": "Using in-memory database, no migrations needed",
         }
     try:
-        conn = psycopg.connect(settings.DATABASE_URL, connect_timeout=3)
+        conn = psycopg.connect(_pg_url(settings.DATABASE_URL), connect_timeout=3)
         with conn.cursor() as cur:
             cur.execute("""
                 SELECT COUNT(*) FROM information_schema.tables
@@ -144,14 +149,19 @@ async def _check_migrations() -> dict:
 def debug_viral_columns():
     """Temporary debug: inspect viral_video_jobs columns + alembic_version."""
     try:
-        conn = psycopg.connect(settings.DATABASE_URL, connect_timeout=3)
-        with conn.cursor() as cur:
-            cur.execute("SELECT column_name FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_schema='public' AND table_name='viral_video_jobs' ORDER BY ordinal_position")
-            cols = [r[0] for r in cur.fetchall()]
-            cur.execute("SELECT version_num FROM alembic_version")
-            row = cur.fetchone()
+        from sqlalchemy import create_engine, text
+        url = settings.effective_database_url
+        eng = create_engine(url, connect_args={"connect_timeout": 3})
+        with eng.connect() as conn:
+            cols = [r[0] for r in conn.execute(text(
+                "SELECT column_name FROM information_schema.columns "
+                "WHERE table_schema='public' AND table_name='viral_video_jobs' "
+                "ORDER BY ordinal_position"
+            )).fetchall()]
+            row = conn.execute(text("SELECT version_num FROM alembic_version")).fetchone()
             version = row[0] if row else None
-        conn.close()
-        return {"columns": cols, "alembic_version": version, "count": len(cols)}
+        eng.dispose()
+        return {"columns": cols, "alembic_version": version, "count": len(cols), "db_url": url[:url.find('@')+1] + '***' if '@' in url else url}
     except Exception as e:
-        return {"error": f"{type(e).__name__}: {e}"}
+        import traceback
+        return {"error": f"{type(e).__name__}: {e}", "trace": traceback.format_exc()[-500:]}