sparks, smoke and fire from my ballast...need help

SexiShrimp

SexiShrimp

New member
Hey All,
By the grace of god, my husband and I were home when the 'incident' occurred. The balast from my VHO's somehow spazzed out and was throwing sparks, making electrical sounds and smoking like a choo choo. I quickly unplugged the entire lighting system and waited a bit. The balast was very hot....the light insert part that plugged into it did not seem to be burned or melted or affected in any way. Just the ballast died.

So I am on the look out for new ballast. I had a ice-cap 660-009 for my 440watts of VHO's. SO I am looking for the same or another brand that can hold that amount of wattage.

Any opinions on what to get....I am thinking of getting the ice cap again...

Emerald bay is lending me some lights until I get this issue settled....thank goodness for them!

And my husband is very worried that something like this will happen again! I am too actually! But from what I heard, it's a rare thing to have this happen. The ballast wasn't around much but it was under the tank and one never knows what could have caught on fire.

:)

Thanks for your future help!
Mimi
 
Have you contacted icecap yet? They are in the forums here and always given me great service. This is why all my ballasts are icecap. I am not sure on how old yours is (date should be on the back), but whatever the age if you ship it to them they will fix it for $50. They should also be able to tell you why this occured after looking at it. Turn around time for them is great.
 
Yeah, I'd send it back for a rebuild. They are suprisingly quick. As backups, you could look at hellolights and build a double VHO for $100 (everything except reflector and you wire it). Not a bad investment for a back up. I've run ARO ballasts for a little over two years and have had no problems.
 
I had one 660 go up in smoke on me. Turns out there was some salt creep in one of my endcaps shorting it out. I would have thought the fuse would have tripped first but it didn't. Oh, this was on a gfci also and it didn't trip. Besides this one incident I have had good luck with icecap ballasts.
 
I run an ARO ballast and have not had any issues with it. I ahve heard of issues out of the ice caps hand havde even heard them refered to as ice craps. however, I have never used one, and the aro I have powers 4 110watt vhos at a much better price.
 
I got this entire vho setup with my tank last december....I don't know how long they used it before I got it...I'll check on the date and see what it says on it.

What is a GFI? I have no clue if I have one or not! sorry for my ignorance on that!
:(

Thanks for all your ideas guys!
:)
I am swamped with exams all this week....but I am going to EBay to get my back up lights from them...then I will feel better timewise trying to figure out what happened. If it wasn't the ballast and it was something else, I want to know so it won't happen again.

Both my husband and I were REALLLY scared when this occured.
BIG fire hazard and I took all the precautions before so I could be as fire free as possible!
 
Ground Fault Interupter -- Or GFCI = ground fault circuit interupter. They are code for bathrooms and kitchens and anywhere water is used in a home. I have all my tank stuff hooked into them.

Jack
 
SS the GFCI is that type of plug that has a push button on it to test it. Most likely yours is not as you just got that house and if the prior people never needed it normally don't put them in living rooms. The plug is easy to install and you only need it on one plug of the line for each breaker that you use. You can also get the breakers that are GFCI they are better in some ways as it will take all the elect off the whole line. I know some people slam icecap when one fries but since there are so many of them around and some are old ones there are bound to have some problems.
 
I think it would make really good sense for anyone with a fish tank (especially salt) to get GFI's for any powered stuff that is fish tank related. It could save your life if there is a short in the tank and you ground yourself to something.

Just to expound on Gary's explanation, essentially GFI's detect the amount of current going into one end of the circuit and the amount of current coming out of the other. If these don't match, it trips and the circuit goes dead in very short order. A regular breaker works by the amount of load on the circuit (regular household breaker is 15 amps). Until that is exceeded (and for some types it takes quite a while even after 15 amps has been exceeded because it uses the heat created by the extra load), the breaker will not pop. So, it's possible to have a short or current otherwise going into the tank that will not trip a standard breaker. You would be a pile of ash before a 15 amp circuit breaker ever tripped for you.

These outlets are fairly cheap and install just like a regular outlet. I have no experience with the GFI circuit breakers (which would be much easier to install) but they also make extension cords and plugs that go directly into outlets on the wall (i.e., entirely idiot proof).

Finally, if you are using one of these and its tripping for some reason, it is entirely possible that you have a bad GFI... however, it is much more likely that there is a serious problem somewhere in the circuit. Do NOT somehow by-pass the GFI until you figure out if the circuit is intact and are positive that it is the GFI that is faulty. My Dad is an electrician and a guy he worked with (someone who should have known better) by-passed a GFI because it kept tripping and it cost him his life. I'm not trying to scare people, but the mix of water and electricity is for sure the biggest danger in this hobby (unless you keep a sea snake) and a very inexpensive piece of equipment can really cut down a lot of the risks associated with it.
 
So would a GFI pick up any anomolies from a extension cord plugged onto it or does the device have to be directly plugged into it. The reason I ask is that I usually have a timer that is attached to the extension cord that has the lights plugged into it.
Thanks
 
I have power strips plugged into mine and multiple timers coming off of them. In theory, they shouldn't trip a GFI. The only problem I have had with plug-in GFI's (I rent so I'm not going to do any re-wiring or tinkering with electrical stuff) is that I bought one really cheap one on clearance and when the power would go off it would trip the GFI. I checked the other ones I've bought by flipping the breaker and haven't had any of them trip on any of the recent power outtages.
 
I got one of the $35 GFCI 20A brealers from Lowes (even had them in a locked glass case-OOOOHHH). It trips if I breathe too loud. It has been getting worse lately. I noticed it first whenever I would turn my pumps off for feeding (rare occurrence, but...). Everytime the switch on a 6 strip outlet was switched off, the breaker trips. If I manually unplug all wires from the six strip, all works well... I'm going to replace the breaker with a wall outlet. If you can find the plug in type (Grainger has them if Lowes/HD don't), they are certainly easier to install. A wall outlet GFCI has to be wired correctly, or all downstream plugs will not work.
 
I was just at home depot yesterday getting some stuff to build my own outlet box with 2 sets of GFI outlets, and I noticed that they do have (for $35, I think) 3-outlet GFI things similar to the one in your link.

Jack
 
I went to home depot today and I looked around and I asked for help...they directed me to the cheaper gfci's, they wre pretty much surge protectors for 12 bucks.....I'll go to lowes and see what they have. I ordered a ARO retro fit kit that is better wired.....we'll see how that works....they say it's pretty comparable to the Ice Cap and also has a 3 yr warranty.

:)
Little by little it'll get back to normal! whew! What a learning experience

:)
SS
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7547896#post7547896 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SexiShrimp
I ordered a ARO retro fit kit that is better wired.....we'll see how that works....they say it's pretty comparable to the Ice Cap and also has a 3 yr warranty.
Click to expand...

You order it from EB?
 
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