ATi light on fire

[Kona26]

I have a 6 bulb 80w ATi light fixture that caught on fire tonight. I am wanting to know if anyone else has had issues with these ? Fixture is just under a year old. We'll vented area. I went lights out for 3 days when I turned them back on the 4 and 6 bulb strobed then came on. Went into my room and when I came out the 6 bulb on the end was on fire. Not to happy Just lucky it didn't happen when I was at work.

 

[TheYellowSnow]

I have a 6 bulb 80w ATi light fixture that caught on fire tonight. I am wanting to know if anyone else has had issues with these ? Fixture is just under a year old. We'll vented area. I went lights out for 3 days when I turned them back on the 4 and 6 bulb strobed then came on. Went into my room and when I came out the 6 bulb on the end was on fire. Not to happy Just lucky it didn't happen when I was at work.

Wow crazy!

Just a thinking. Reef Ai is comnig out with a PAR probe.

https://www.reefai.com/product/sun-drop-solar-edition/

I wonder if we could script it to kill all the lights connected to the powerbar if the PAR suddenly drops.

Thats the first thing you did right? Kill the power? Fire went out?

 

[Kona26]

Yes. The 2 bank still works fine as far as I can tell. The 4 bank is toast though

 

[Kona26]

Flipped the switch and fire went out. Thankfully

 

[Reefvet]

Flipped the switch and fire went out. Thankfully

So a ballast overheated.

 

[Kona26]

You think so that quickly. ? The light was on for maybe 3 min if that. I had the lights off for 3 days prior just flipped them back on when I got home from work. I don't know much out how the lights work. Is that normal. ?

 

[uncleof6]

No it is not normal. I would be on the phone with an ATI rep first thing in the morning. They are going to want to know about this, and will probably want the fixture as well, so they can determine the cause. It is not safe to use anymore, anyway. Sounds to me like a ballast went south, and the current limiting failed, and it does not take very long at all. However, the cause could have been a high resistance short, or salt residue on the contacts. This is the first time I have heard of an ATI unit having a catastrophic failure, however you can (possibly) get the same result from over-driving T5/HO lamps as well, and there have been more that a few incidents.

 

[Kona26]

Yeah I thought that something may have gotten on the light but looks clean to me. The fire came out of the case where the end of the light conects

 

[Kona26]

I will be calling them in the morning. Let's just say my wife was not very happy ! Would have been bad with the kids in the house

 

[Kona26]

I emailed the site I bought it from and hope to hear back from them in the morning

 

[theatrus]

So the fire was leaving the light fixture? That's bad. Contained fires are "good" (as good as a fire can be), which is a great reason for metal enclosures.

 

[uncleof6]

I will be calling them in the morning. Let's just say my wife was not very happy ! Would have been bad with the kids in the house

And then some. This is a very serious issue, don't use that fixture. I am sure you know that already.

 

[Kona26]

Lol yeah that thing is disconnected. It could have been much worse.

 

[Kona26]

Gona be out of a light for a few weeks I'm sure

 

[Kona26]

I have not had the lights out for this long. Should I be concerned for my corals and fish if I'm out of a light for a week or 2. ?

 

[Kona26]

It was almost like when you light a firework and the fuse catches fire and almost has force behind it that's what it did into the side of the light case. I am sure that if we where not home it would have burned through the case

 

[Gorgok]

I have not had the lights out for this long. Should I be concerned for my corals and fish if I'm out of a light for a week or 2. ?

Fish won't care. Corals might depending on what they are and what else they get... If you do feed them micro foods already (or do it now) they probably won't care that much either. Not all their food comes from sunshine and rainbows.

 

[Kona26]

hard to tell but the last bulb bank is the one that went south

 

[Kona26]

Ok cool thanks

 

[Kona26]

It came out of the top where it goes into the case.