what smells like electrical fire? my house does!!! i returned home this evening to nothing running on my tank. i also had the sweet smell of charcoaled , melted wires in my metal halide ballast box, which i am glad was metal cased and off the bottem of my stand on a metal shelf . seems that my transformers shorted out when timer tripped lights on, inturn making a small fire in ballast box, which inturn killed power on recepticle. THANK GOD. so i am stressing to all of you that run tanks to spend that extra few bucks and make sure that all of your outlets are GFI protected and /or your timers are protected. i could have very much so came home to a fire truck hosing my house. also make sure that you have a drop loop on all wires leading to outlets. this is something that i noticed alot of people dont do. i am hoping that all of you will go out tonight and purchase an GFI outlet for your tanks if you are running without one. water and electric do not mix. so i am as well posting in market place for a new ballast for my metal halides as well.
Glad everything worked as it was supposed to and you still have a home Glenn. The GFI outlets that my tanks are plugged into have gone off a couple of times in the past and I have always thought it was a good idea to have them.
glad to here it was not as bad as it could have been.
Wow scary stuff. Glad it wasn’t worse.
ive got good circuit breakers hooked up, but i did pick up a pack of gfi outlets, going to change mine tomorrow!
This happened to me as well, came home to the tank pumps shut down and all the lights off and the basement full of smoke :-?. When I switched the breaker back the metal halide coil started to smolder and spark again. I shut everything down and cut the power to the lights and disconnected it. I am now running all electronic balasts for the M.H. and the tubes. Very scary this hobbie that everyone here loves and that quick it could be over wheather it’s just your tank, your house or maybe your life if a fire starts and you can’t get out.
And yeah I put GFI's on my tank very soon after that alsoOUCH! That is a nearly disasterous event. I hate to say no GFIs on my tanks. but i do take great care to loop, and or keep the ballasts and electronics high and dry in the event of a leak. There are tons of pictures of melted, charred power strips that got wet. mine are either on a panel next to and above the spill zone of the tank, or shielded under the tank stand. power cord loops are the first, easiest derfense, but the GFIs are best.
What sort of MH ballast do you need? DPA has a pair of new magnetic, odysea 175 ballasts, left over from newark tropicals days, for like 50 bucks, i think. cant beat that for a Quick fix. not the greatest, but should work. in the consignment area, still in the box.
Ken I asked about that ballast, and was told it is for 175 watt HQI's which seem to be impossible to find cause Odysea seemed to be the only one to have them. Was told they would not work for mogules.I use the “Shockbuster” brand from F&S, they work great and they’re cheap.
Glen, glad to hear it wasn’t worse!
if all my electric [cords receptacles & equipment] are above the concrete floor between 8 inches and 6 feet, am i still not safe?
it is not that we dont take the appropate precations. eqitment failure can happen. my ballast box was just getting old. that could even happen to new ones. just shows that even the best electronics could short out, so we need to be as preventive in our set ups as possible for the unexpected.
another pic of meltyness
Ouch that looks bad, glad you caught it
opinion wanted: i have everything IN the water on a GFI outlet (shockbuster)
the only items not on that GFI are my lights.
the fixture is the current nova extreme pro 6x 48" 54w T5’s… do they need the GFI as well? they are grounded on a coalife dual timer fixture with drip loops.
thanks in advance
Im just the opposite:)
I have nothing in the water on a GFI(related to life support) and all my lights on a GFI.
Our lights draw the most current, get the hottest, and are IMO the most dangerous. GFI’s are great, but they can be tempermental and trip for no apparent reason. If all of your pumps and poweheads are on GFI and it trips for no reason, you could come home to a very dead tank. Ive only had two “tank crashes” where i have lost more than one fish at a time and this very scenario is what caused mine. And, believe it or not, it tripped sometime after bed and by the next morning it was too late. I lost two of my larger fish because of it including a yellow tang i had for several years. I wouldnt put pumps on a GFI. I could pour a gallon of water on my external pumps and they would be fine.
having it on the in water items keeps you from getting electrocuted while you have your arms in the tank though. or thats what im led to believe
i’d rather have a dead tank than be dead heh.
having it on the in water items keeps you from getting electrocuted while you have your arms in the tank though. or thats what im led to believe
your have a better chance of getting attacked and killed by killer bees on your way to work today than getting electrocuted by your tank. ;D
not to make lite of what happened to Glen, but i always find it interesting how everything with tanks are SO dangerous. i mean when we talked about battery backups, someone said you would blow you house up. now pumps will electrocute you. sure, tanks are dangerous, but no more than a lot of things in your house:) take reasonable precaution with EVERYTHING electrical in your house, and use things for the purpose that they are designed and you will be fine. everyone here is way more likely to burn down their house using a clothing iron than by owning a tank IMO
I got shocked by my tank, because my light bulb wasnt all the way in an start arcing to the metal then down into the tank… but it didnt hurt and it was a quick fix…
i got shocked by my tank when the heater shattered and left the metal coils bare in the tank and i put my arm in it.
[quote=“Marchingbandjs, post:18, topic:2300”]
I got shocked by my tank, because my light bulb wasnt all the way in an start arcing to the metal then down into the tank… but it didnt hurt and it was a quick fix…[/quote]
how close was the metal? it takes 30,000 volts to arc a centimeter in dry air.