My Aquariam Lights just exploded---Pics.

paddy147

I ve just come home to find a smouldering ruin in my 500 litre Discuss fish tank.

My Arcadia T5 lighting system just exploded and went on fire.:(



Now,I was looking for an excuse to change over to an LED lighting system,but this isnt the reason or excuse that I was looking for.

Looks like the ballast unit just exploded and caused a small fire.

Philistine

The fish ok ???

paddy147

Philistine wrote: »

The fish ok ???

Yep all 6 Discuss,4 Congo Tetras and 18 Cardinals are fine.

Oh and the 9 chain loaches,3 brislenose plecs and their babies too.:D

BrianDug

Unfortunate but thankfully mr.fish and co. are ok, any ideas why the ballast failed? Have never come across one that has exploded.
Is it an electronic ballast yeah?

paddy147

BrianDug wrote: »

Unfortunate but thankfully mr.fish and co. are ok, any ideas why the ballast failed? Have never come across one that has exploded.
Is it an electronic ballast yeah?

I dont know to be honest.

Possible failure due to some moisture perhaps???

Im baffled...nothing else has failed or blown up.All plugs and sockets are fine.
The lights and digital CO2 injection system are on their own 24 hour timers,and have been since day 1.


The plug and even the plug fuse on the Arcadia light system is fine,it didnt melt or blow.
One of the 4 foot long T5 light tubes flickered for a few minutes last night and went very dull.It then came back up to full brightness a few minutes later.


But that area where the ballast pack is,is allways dry and no moisture has ever built up there.

The tank and lights and all the setup was bought brand new,and are up and runing around 18 months now,never ever had a problem,until now.:(

funnilenough

hi paddy
i've been keeping fish a long time now and i've never seen that happen before!
you say ye bought them new,and they're prob out of warranty,but i'd stil bring them back if the shop is still open.not so much for a refund but to show them what occurred,and maybe get a very large discount on the LEDS.
i'm sure the manufacturer would be very interested to see them aswell,who made them?
actually,even if the shop was closed/didn't want to know,i'd still contact the manuf. directly and explain to them how lucky you were only to come back to a smoldering lighting unit!
keep us posted how this goes
BTW the tank looks great,are they Skanker discus by any chance?

paddy147

funnilenough wrote: »

hi paddy
i've been keeping fish a long time now and i've never seen that happen before!
you say ye bought them new,and they're prob out of warranty,but i'd stil bring them back if the shop is still open.not so much for a refund but to show them what occurred,and maybe get a very large discount on the LEDS.
i'm sure the manufacturer would be very interested to see them aswell,who made them?
actually,even if the shop was closed/didn't want to know,i'd still contact the manuf. directly and explain to them how lucky you were only to come back to a smoldering lighting unit!
keep us posted how this goes
BTW the tank looks great,are they Skanker discus by any chance?

Pet Store is still open,where we got the aquariam setup and kit.

The lights are made by "Arcadia"


Yep the Discuss are Stendker.....got a very good deal on them from a new aquariam shop that has opened up beside Tesco,Artane Castle.:)

My missus has been keeping fish a long time now aswell,and her dad has been keeping most of his life (tropicals,Disucss and koi carp)..and they have never seen anything like that before.


I think I might take your advice and take a trip out to the pet store where we bought the tank,cabinet,filter and lights....and show them whats left of the Arcadia light system.

funnilenough

aye,thats exactly what i would do,don't let them fob you off either!
i'm sure Arcadia have a website,so i'd contact them too,ye never know what kinda goodies they might offer.
let them know that your onda fish forums and all the lads are eiger to see how this pans out
LFS tend to both love and hate fish forums equally;)

M cebee

ive seen them short circuit a few times and trip lighting mcbs
Are the ballasts sealed-maybe thats a factor heat dissipation
Theres an awful lot of dodgy electrical gear out there now

paddy147

M cebee wrote: »

ive seen them short circuit a few times and trip lighting mcbs
Are the ballasts sealed-maybe thats a factor heat dissipation
Theres an awful lot of dodgy electrical gear out there now

We unscrewed the plastic housing of the ballast unit.

The wires inside the unit went into a black gel type material.

The entire inside of the unit seemed to be charred and melted.

The foul smell from the unit was horrible.:(

Im just lucky that I did not arrive home to find a few fire brigades dampening down the remains of my house.:eek:

The ballast pack exploded,went on fire and burned part of the fish tank cabinet

Somebody (my late mother) was looking down on me yesterday....thank god.:)

paddy147

funnilenough wrote: »

aye,thats exactly what i would do,don't let them fob you off either!
i'm sure Arcadia have a website,so i'd contact them too,ye never know what kinda goodies they might offer.
let them know that your onda fish forums and all the lads are eiger to see how this pans out
LFS tend to both love and hate fish forums equally;)

Im on the irish fish keepers forum and also the leinster fish forum too.

Thanks for the good advice.:)

M cebee

im not happy leaving gadgets on standby /permanently on esp when out of the house
I dont trust half the cheap stuff on sale now from a safety standpoint

paddy147

M cebee wrote: »

im not happy leaving gadgets on standby /permanently on esp when out of the house
I dont trust half the cheap stuff on sale now from a safety standpoint

Never had a problem in 18 months...until now.:(

The lights come on at 11am and then go back off at around 9pm at night.

They were on when I left the house,and should have been still on when I got back home.

So the ballast pack must have exploded and gone on fire while it was on and the lights were on.

Bruthal

paddy147 wrote: »

Never had a problem in 18 months...until now.:(

The lights come on at 11am and then go back off at around 9pm at night.

They were on when I left the house,and should have been still on when I got back home.

So the ballast pack must have exploded and gone on fire while it was on and the lights were on.

Its an unusual one anyway.

Id say you will setup some sort of led lighting setup now. Its a good excuse/reason to do it now.

paddy147

2 people this evening have told me that it sounds like the "capacitor" blew up.

Heres some pics of what remains inside the casing.

dingding

You can see where the top has blown off the capacitor and was blown through the top of the casing.

Can you describe the smell.

paddy147

dingding wrote: »

You can see where the top has blown off the capacitor and was blown through the top of the casing.

Can you describe the smell.

A strong nasty burning smell...kinda like a clutch smell that you get when you burn out a cars clutch.:(

deandean

Jeez that is very serious! Not just for the fish but for your house.

The PFC capacitor is the usual suspect, they can go bang, they don't make them like they used to.

Hopefully you will get well looked after from the retailer / manufacturer.

It'd probably be a very big change to go LED. Maybe get new ballasts, and a good smoke alarm is the realistic option :eek:

maxamillius

id say capacitor blew causing that fire,happened in work twice in the last month,capacitors blowing in 2d fittings,result in the light going on fire and the case melting onto the floor!

swapping them all out to leds at the moment!!

Bruthal

dingding wrote: »

You can see where the top has blown off the capacitor and was blown through the top of the casing.

Can you describe the smell.

Id say that hole is just melted out of the casing.

paddy147

I went out to the Pet Store where I bought the tank and all the equipement new.

The shop manager was shocked to say the least.He was fairly gobsmacked upon seeing the lights,and said that I was very lucky that much worse didnt happen (house fire and possible fatality)

Their fish tank trade suppliers (who supply them with Clearseal tanks and Arcadia lights) are going to contact me and have a look at whats left of the Arcadia ballast pack and also the fire damage to the tanks cabinet lid.

So heres hoping anyway.

M cebee

maxamillius wrote: »

id say capacitor blew causing that fire,happened in work twice in the last month,capacitors blowing in 2d fittings,result in the light going on fire and the case melting onto the floor!

swapping them all out to leds at the moment!!

took one out of a fluorescent today-almost burnt through diffuser
fitting was individually fused and still lit