Fire!

[optical]

the ballast box for my MH lights burned out! i smelled smoke and called the fire department. the checked out the house and we came to the conclusion that it was the box that the smell was coming from. it was too hot to even touch! i took it out to the garage and opened it up and half the guts were melted and burnt to a crisp.
its an oddyssea dual 275 w.MH with dual 96 w. actinics and 6 led moons.

so my question is where is the best place online to get a replacement box?
why could this have happened?
its scary to think that if i wasnt home while this happend, it positively would have caused a major fire! good thing i caught it in time though.
also, how long can corals survive with only the actinic lighting on?

[optical]

just did a bit of research on this topic and found out that odyssea's ballast boxes for metal halides seem to quite commonly burn out or start fire!
its the capacitator that burned out. (the white cylinder) one for each light.
highly discorage purchasing this product or even brand all together.

[zhenya]

Oh man, this really sucks!

I think your corals should be OK for a couple of days just under actinic lighting. If this is a remote ballasts that burn out I would simply replace them with some other brand. PFO makes great dual ballast for MH, I have one for years and it never gave me a second of worry. The quick discinnects are easily wired, too. Check Premium Aquatics INC - live rock and aquarium supply and see what they have on them as far as price goes.

[Ninong]

Glad it happened while you were home and not while everyone was out for the day.

Do you have any 96w Daylight or 10,000K PC tubes laying around? If so, change the PCs to 10,000K or Daylight (6500K) until you can get new metal halides. If not, it's no big deal, the two 96w PC actinics will keep things going for several days at least. The corals will just think it's a stormy period.

If you run just PC actinics for longer than a week, then go slow when you start up brand new metal halide lamps.

[fish outa wata]

did you buy the ballat new? maybe you can contact the manufacturer and they might try to reimburse you. Icecap and Pfo are the way to go.

[sihaya]

Oh dude, that is so not cool! Good to know no one got hurt though. I know my ballast definitely gets hot enough to burn skin if you touch it for more than a few seconds. I swear I could cook an egg on that thing. It's kinda scary...

[optical]

i got in touch with the guy behind the guy. that is to say the distributor who the ebay pet store bought the lights from. i emailed them last night and he called me back today to tell me UPS will pick up the bad lights and balast and next tuesday drop off a brand new Odyssea 06 model! i am totally amazed! talk about customer service.
even though im getting a whole new light, im still worried about the new balast burning up. the guy said it was a faulty capacitator just like i said, but he wasnt sure why and said he's never heard of this happening. (ya right)
i will keep the 2x96 w. actinics on until they come and take it away.
maybe i can rent a pendant from my lfs for a few days.
thanks for the advice my fellow reefers-

[Reefland]

That is good to hear! Nice to see someone stand behind the product.

[mandarin_watcher]

I am so glad to hear no one was hurt in your ordeal. With that being said, I too have heard of the odessa lights catching fire a time or two. The LFS in my area had the same problem, they wont even sell them now. But I have a question, or maybe a suggestion, I had Corallife lights, and boy did that unit get hot. I even called the customer service once to ask about it, and they asked me if I was keeping the fans clean. I answered ofcourse, what type of idiot do you take me for. I assume we all take our little brushes and go over the to light and brush off the lint, junk that builds up over the fan exaust and inlet. Well come to find out, Something that isn't on the instructions. It little covers over the fans slide over and off. then you can pull out the little fan, unplug it from the unit. Take a clean dry very small bottle brush and clean the small fan unit. plug it back into the fan, and put the cover back on.
The light runs a heck of a lot cooler, and quieters. You can feel the difference. But as stated, this little note is not included in the instructions. I believe that may have a lot to do with why these type of units are overheating and catching fire, The customers are not being told how to properly care for and totally clean these up. I guess the companies are hoping the unit get hot and burns out, (not burn up), then we need to replace them more often $$$$$$

[optical]

hmmmm....good point. i never even cleaned out the fans. i didnt know you were supposed to. duh! i'll keep that in mind with the new lights.

[whatevva]

Another good reason why our tanks should be on AFCI circuits!!;)