Photos of my house fire...aquarium put it out.

Sorry for your loss, at least the insurace co. is playing fair, mine sure didn't when my washing machine overflowed 3 years ago, go the money but noght without a fight.

Anyway, was this coralife strip the digital one? or the one with the dials on it?
I was thinking the digital one may quit if it was shorted out.
 
It had a dial on it for the timer. Still waiting to hear from the specialist regarding what went wrong in the strip.

Yes, insurance has been EXTREMELY fair. I couldn't have asked for better. The restoration company on the other hand definately has some problems.

Thanks for the reply.
 
god allmighty.....................ok , who read this and didnt go look in their stand? man , i installed a gfi , i thought that would prevent this.....................i have my light ballasts mounted on the back of my canopy, i had moisture get into one of them and while i was sitting right there it smoked and hummed pretty good but the gfi tripped, so i installed weatherstripping under the lid and now i keep the lid propped open with the scrubber part of my mag float and moisture doesnt build up anymore, plus it helsp vent heat...........i dont have the power center you speak of , i just used 4 , 6 plug power strips under the tank..................time to raise a couple of them higher up in the stand......................and i use those plastic plug covers for outlets im not using so no moisture gets in them
 
wow that is crazy what happened to you reading this....now I will relate my experience it was with the ez single ballast by this company purchased through lfs special order from a rep

a week later it has burning smell I put it in a metal pot lid as shown in picture thought it was just over heating then it melted!

called ESU and they claimed something fishy (pun intended) and of course claimed no problems with their product?????????
sent me a new one 3 months later as I return from bathroom whole room smelled burning electrical smell and light was off!
it appears same thing happened 3 days ago but this one arced into and fused lightbulb to connectors! now that I am reading this thread---- I don't want another product from them!! something needs to be done with this company before someone dies!!! I am so P.O.'d cannot believe that this product could have killed me at anytime!and it does not have a UL listing on it?

IMG_0195.jpg
 
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I just read this thread for the first time and it scared the heck out of me. Thanks to all who contributed. I bet this info will save someone's house or even life if enough people read it. I'm off to check all of my electrical connections...
 
This realy concerns me. Shortly after purchasing my Aqualight Pro, I read a post on this form (Spring 2005) about somebodys Aqualight causing or nearly causing a fire while the MH were on.

My tank is currently cycling 150lbs of LR and have'nt needing to use the MHs yet, but because of reading that post I am a little nervous and a bit paranoid about using the MH while Im at work. Now after reading this post .... Yikes. Kind of make you think...
 
Concerns me too, I have the Aqualight Pro and the Powerstrip. And did you say that the flame melted the glass in the tank? Or that it burned the stand and then the tank came crashing down?
 
WOW! So sorry to hear about that AqCons, glad you and your are OK.

Soooo, I'm not an electrical engineer either, but my first thought came quickly after reading that this was a 15 watt power strip. 15 Watts isn't really that much power, I'm wondering what all you had plugged into it, and why some of you electrically minded people haven't asked this yet? I have two of the dual timer strips under my tank right now, they've been there for about a year now, but I'm thinking they won't be there much longer after reading this. (BTW - the reason there are two is because the actinic side of both stopped working shortly after getting them, so I just use the daylight side of each)

I know how to calculate all this stuff in DC, but not sure about AC. Isn't it volts X amps = Watts? I wish I knew for sure how to calculate all of this. I have 2x96w PCs and 2x65w PCs on my timers, plus a maxi-jet 1200 in one, and a 200w heater in the other (both on the continuous ON circuit). Also there are 6 LED moonlights, which I'm sure don't add much to the equation, but they are powered by a 12v DC transformer.

My strips are all mounted above the water level, and are on the return end of the sump, which should at least reduce the salt creep issue. But what about the amount of power we pull through these things. Put a double 275 watt metal halide hood with some PC actinics, and I bet you're overloading it. Heck, I might be overloading mine...can anyone compute how much power I am pulling? And AqCons, what type of lighting did you have plugged into it, and what else was plugged into the strip?

I used to think mine looked cool, now they look scary!

Jason
 
just read this thread.. scary to think that we rely so much on powerstrips in general with very little ability to keep them safe for reef tank setups..
 
well , i can say , under my tank is alot cleaner and alot neater, no more wires on carpet behind tank etc.....................so i have to say thanx
 
I had a 300 watt heater, small (mini) powerhead, and a duall 65 watt powercompact light. I was o nly using 3 plugs. My husband said we were in no way overloading it. The fire investigator said the same thing. This powerstrip started melting from the underside.
 
Ok, so obviously there is a problem here, with the power strips.
So what out there can we use??
The "new" Coralife DIGITAL strip has a CB so with a GFI and the CB, has anyone had problems with the CL digital strip??
 
Thanks AqCons, just making sure, I have almost twice the load on mine...They are being removed tonight. Thanks for the tip off!

Jason
 
I am not sure how I stumbled onto this thread but it is a must read for all. I for one hate GFCI's because they have nuisance trips all the time. However, I might be changing my tune after seeing this.

So sorry for your devastating fire, I have been there and the sense of loss is undescribable. So glad that no one was hurt. Well physically I mean .. . . you know what I mean.
 
I just have a question I just bought an Aqualight Pro and i have a Coralife super skimmer. Do you think this is a big threat to burning anything cause this is the first time i have heard any thing bad about Coralife. I have really only heard good things but i see most people are talking about the powerstrip so is it just the power stip
 
Puffer, from what I understand it is the power strip that is the problem. Have you had any problems with equipment? Things like overheating, shorting out, flickering operation, etc.?
 
i Have never had any problems with the Coralife skimmer but i dont have my aqualight pro and the last couple of posts sounded like the aqualight was bad to. Im 15 and were trying to sell our house if any thing caught on fire i would be like ground for life so i want to make sure that the aqualight and skimmer are not huge threats of caughting on fire.
 
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