IceCap Ballast

[GaryP]

I just got an emergency call from my wife. Apparently there were flames shooting out of the back of one my tanks. The Icecap ballast had caught fire. It was placed fairly high up inside my stand and wasn't where it could get sprayed on. I had just done some work to minimize the amount of spray to minimize the salt creep on my sump. I bought this particular ballast a few months ago from another MAAST member.

Anyone have any ideas what may have happened here?

[JimD]

I dunno, but Im sure glad your wife was home! These ballasts nowa days, they worry me, the electronic ones are supposed to be the most reliable, Im not so sure thats the case anymore. Id open it up and see if theres any moisture in it, I have two and have gotten one of them wet on two seperate occasions, they popped the GFI but no flames, I opened it up, blew it out with a compressor and it worked fine. Knock on wood.

[GaryP]

There was no way water could have gotten into it. I'm gonna call Ice Cap tomorrow. I have been running multiple Ice Cap ballasts for over 10 years and have never had anything like this happen before. As a matter of fact I just got 2 re-built ones from them a few weeks ago. I have accumulated enough of them over the years that I just send them in to be re-built every once in a while when they burn out.

The funny thing is that I discovered that I was using an under rated ballast on this tank (430) and replaced it with this ballast (660). I never had a problem with the 430 until I tried to use it on my other tank that apparently had some wiring problems.

[alton]

We have had tar ballast get hot and toast, but never electronic. I guess there's a first time for everything. I am glad to hear nothing real bad happened. Gary was this on your 125 or 75? And if it was the 125 was it plugged into the $50 GFCI?

[GaryP]

Alton,

It was the 75 gal. and it wasn't plugged into the GFI. The fuse on the ballast wasn't even effected, the surge protector didn't trip and the house breaker didn't trip. That's what freaks me out. I just talked to Ice Cap and they said that some oil probably leaked from one of the capacitors and it caught fire. The said they would replace it at no charge. Go figure. My wife had just walked in the door when it happened. I lucked out on that one.

Would a GFI had made a difference?

[GaryP]

Does anyone happen to have a spare PC light fixture I can use until I can get the ballast replaced?

[SBreef]

What do you need?

[GaryP]

Roy,

At this point I'm not going to be picky. I just need some minimal lighting to keep me going for a week or so until my replacement ballast comes back from Ice Cap.

[alton]

Gary I have a Industrial T5HO with lamps that you can use temporarly here at work. I bought some lamps from Alex a while back and the light fits on a 75g. Call me if you need it, you know where I work. GFCI's only trip under an imbalance of loads. Maybe an arc fault breaker would of tripped?

[brewercm]

I have a NO 40 watt 48" strip light with what looks to be a 50/50 bulb in it. Not much but you are welcome to it for however long you need.

Cliff

[GaryP]

Cliff, PM sent.

[satx-94integraLS]

ive got a 48" floro bulb only, and a fw other small floro bulbs you can have if you got fixtures for them gary...

[GaryP]

I have it under control for now. Thatks for all the offers.