lights started on fire

[daugherty]

well i am glad that i ordered new lights and most important still have a house. i have been gone all day to a furneral for my wifes aunt and get home and the house was full of smoke. my lights started to arc at the connection the end cap is all melted the hood is black from fire and i think that the only reason that it did not take off is because it blew the ballast before it got very big.

 

[hibye]

What brand of lights?

 

[dustin_P74]

wow, you got lucky man

 

[daugherty]

custom sea life are the brand of lights it is a retro fit that i have changed the end caps on

 

[RyanG]

WOWZA! Lucky that you have a house thank god it blew the ballast.

 

[JAG107]

Great luck, man. Geez I couldn't imagine having a house burn down because of a fish tank! Hey this gives you an excuse to upgrade!

 

[daugherty]

this is the second time. the bulb just does not fit good enough in the cap i am guessing these are the end caps. they are the second from the bottom of the page

http://www.hamiltontechnology.com/shop/index.php?task=show&cat=Additional+Aquarium+Accessories

 

[daugherty]

i just took some pics that i will upload in a min

 

[daugherty]

 

[RyanG]

Wow james thats not cool at all. Time to switch brands of endcaps if this is the second time.

 

[daugherty]

well i orderen some t5's i got an 8 bulb setup all with ir's and moonlights

 

[daugherty]

those coralife bulbs are the only one that have a problem fitting in the caps the last time it was a coralife bulb to the other bulbs are current bulbs and never had a problem with the but had to get the others since it was all they had at the time but time for a new fixture

 

[JAG107]

nice setup coming Daugherty! I went with halides because I didn't know much about the advantages of t5's at the time, sorta with I went with them instead, mostly for the massive boost to my elec bill from the dual 250's!

 

[daugherty]

that is why i went with t5s my power bill was 225 i think a lot of it was the halide and the pc's and all the fans for the heat

 

[JAG107]

my halides alone use I think over 120 kwh a month, and thats with using them only 8 hours a day! man those high watt fixtures sound pretty cool til your bill comes heh heh

 

[Piggy]

Boy were you lucky. Things could of been a lot worse.

 

[yote]

Extremely lucky.
You'll those T-5s 100 times better though.

 

[Bifferwine]

You are so lucky. I'm glad you caught it before anything more serious happened. Those lights catching on fire did you a favor!

I know how you guys feel about halides and electric bills... I keep my lights on for 9 hours a day and my power bill is still around $300 a month :shock:.

 

[Rcpilot]

WOWZA!! I'm sorry your stuff burned up, but REALLY happy it didn't torch the whole house.

WOW! Did you buy lottery tickets yet? You're on a lucky streak!! :mrgreen:

 

[Altohombre]

WOWZA! I would be afraid to leave my house days after putting even the new end caps in. Maybe you can set up a security cam connected to a fancy phone and carry it with you always =)