Now I'm Screwed!!!

[stresco]

I was feeding my fish tonight and smelled something buring. I didnt pay too much attention to it, but i new that something wasnt right. As I fed Bruce a piece of shrimp, I heard some sizzling noise comming from my T8s. Then came the smoke from the side of the light strip. Thats it. The balast is gone. There are burn marks on the clips. The whole strip is toast. Thats half my wattage for this tank, GONE! Even if i had the money, Its sunday...if i order anything tonight, it wont get processed till tomorow so i wont get it till the end of the week. WTF is gonna happen next!?!?!?


:censor:

 

[reefrunner69]

I would suspect, while not happy, your inverts will survive just fine for 5 days on 1/2 the wattage. I would try to figure out why the ballast went, if it did

 

[stresco]

I need to crack open the strip to find out for sure, but im suspecting Salt Creep to be the culprit.

Just as a followup, I just upgraded to MH . I bought a 350watt MH Retro Kit to replace the strip i lost and the PCs that are still on the tank. I shoutl have it in a few days. I hope that my corals survive with half the light. Its enough to make me drink

 

[ReefRaff]

Well, I'll sit down and have one with ya seein how it's been a rough day and all burp :? anyho just wanted to say i'm sorry your light burned up but atleast ya get a cool new lighting setup. cheers,

 

[fernzpat]

350 watt??? where did you buy and how much did you pay? Any worrys about aclimation from T5's to MH's?

 

[stresco]

350 watt??? where did you buy and how much did you pay? Any worrys about aclimation from T5's to MH's?

Friend of mine turned me on to an ebay auction. There are still some left, they had like 20 of them. Cost was $200.00 with shipping.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2369864007&category=3212

Yeah... I definately have concernes about the change in lighting, but seeing as i have to do something to replace the strip that burned out, im just gonna have to go for it and hope i do no more than piss them off.

 

[cj10488]

When acclimating your corals/fish to the new lighting take a few sheets of window screen and place it over the tank.. I will shield out a majority of the lighting.. Every few days or so remove a sheet.. Wathc the corals to see how they respond.. You should notice no change.. If you do then place the screen back on for a few more days.. IMO that would be the best way to acclimate everything over to the new lighting..

HTH<
James

 

[dansemacabre]

I could be wrong, but isn't that kinda expensive for a dual 250 seeing as it's a magnetic ballast? Marindepot has its magnetic duals listed for $158 ... only the HQI go above $200 at about $225. If it's not a dual unit, then it's really kinda high. Unless it's the triple light ballast...because the auction that link sent me to is a 175w ...so I dunno where you went after that. Just curious.

[edit] Ahh, I get it. By 350w you were adding up the 2x175. I'm a quick one, I tell ya. You can get a normal 175w magnetic from md for $131 Again, just curious. [/edit]

 

[stresco]

Its a dual 175 watt retro kit. There are 2 balasts in that auction. Is that high for 2?

 

[stresco]

I cracked it open tonight to see what was going on, it turns out i was right. Salt creep caused the endcaps to arc and burn. So the ballast is still good. If i replace the endcaps and trim back the burned wiring (or replace it) I will have a 100 watt stip in storage in case of an emergency.

 

[cj10488]

Friend of mine turned me on to an ebay auction. There are still some left, they had like 20 of them. Cost was $200.00 with shipping.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2369864007&category=3212

Yeah... I definately have concernes about the change in lighting, but seeing as i have to do something to replace the strip that burned out, im just gonna have to go for it and hope i do no more than *beep* them off.

You will like Dealing with them.. That is where i got my lighting from.. I got the 250w for not much more.. I think mine was about 190.00 but I could be wrong.. I do know that prices jumped a bit right after I ordered.. It was a pleasure dealing with them... You might want to check with Darin from captivereefs.com he had some MH bulbs on sale a while back for a great price and awesome bulbs.. Also I know that Logan from Captiveraisedcorals.com had some awesome prices on bulbs as well.. If neither of them then the XM bulbs are nice.. I have been using them for about 3 months or so now..

HTH<
James

 

[cj10488]

WOW... they did raise the prices a bit... Ebay Lights Not trying to brag about the price I paid or anything I was just told by them that the prices were soon to go up when I placed my order and that is why I placed my order so quick.. FWIW they build every kit to order and they state that Its a 3-5day process before it shipped..

James

 

[stresco]

Thanks for the heads up on the LEAD TIME James. I was wondering why i havent received any type of confirmation from them as of yet.

 

[cj10488]

you might want to give them a call or an email... They are very nice to deal with and they can give you your tracking #'s as well..

HTH,
James

 

[stresco]

At the end of my first post I asked "WTF is gonna happen next!?!?!?" Let me tell you. I finally got an e-mail from Kim at Cool Touch Lighting and this is what it said:

Thank you for your purchase and speedy payment. All our products are custom manufactured to your order. Your item is being processed and will be shipped within 3-4 working days. A tracking number will be issued by email one day after the ship date.

This ballast that you purchased is a probe start ballast which will run any bulb under 10K. If you wish to run a bulb over 10K, you will need a pulse start ballast. Any of our ballasts can be upgraded to a pulse start for $15.00 per ballast. If you are interested in this please let me know before your item is processed.

No where on the Auction did it sate that these ballasts were probe start ballasts.
The Title states "Dual 175 Metal Halide Reef Aquarium Retro Kit". The discription did not state anything about only being able to support lower spectrum lights, so I did not enquire. I already paid for the kit with PayPal, and I am in serious need of the lights. So I guess I will have to pay the extra 30 bucks. Needless to say, I am very disappointed with them and I retract any previous statements of praise for this company. I will not be doing business with them again, and I suggest that if you need lighting, find a nother company to buy from.

 

[cj10488]

This ballast that you purchased is a probe start ballast which will run any bulb under 10K. If you wish to run a bulb over 10K, you will need a pulse start ballast. Any of our ballasts can be upgraded to a pulse start for $15.00 per ballast. If you are interested in this please let me know before your item is processed.

The probe start ballast is the most common ballast on the market.. The only bulbs that it should not fire is the 20k Radium bulbs and HQI bulbs..


HTH,
James

 

[stresco]

Then why are they feeding me miss information? Is my first question. Secondly I am planing on using 20k bulbs in this system.

 

[stresco]

Out of frustration and disgust I called Cool Touch Lighting this morning and spoke with Kim, the representative who e-mailed me. Apparently she was not aware that XM made a 175watt 20k metal halide bulb that is rated for the M57 standard. She was going on the experiences she has had with customers buying bulbs that they supply not firing properly after a few months use. This is do to a limitation of the bulb’s manufacturer.
I explained my frustrations to her about the fact of their Ebay Auction not specifying the standard of the ballasts upfront, and only after I made payment was I informed that an upgrade may be needed, and she was more then helpful to me. In fact she has offered to upgrade the ballasts to pulse start ballast for free. According to her, with a pulse start ballast I will be able to run ANY metal halide bulb (Mogul), regardless of the make (Manufacturer).

 

[stresco]

Now im totally fed up with them. Kim e-mailed me at 4:54 this afternoon telling me that the "Upgraded" ballast is backorderd for another week. So if I can wait till then I will have it, otherwise she can place the orrigional order now and have it built and shipped out by the end the week, with estimated delivery on or around the 13th. This not the way to do business. If you do not have the product, dont sell it!!! I will never ever do business with CoolTouch Lighting again.

 

[cj10488]

Kim e-mailed me at 4:54 this afternoon telling me that the "Upgraded" ballast is backorderd for another week

Didnt you say that they were going to upgrade the ballasts for Free??? I think that it would be worth the week wait for a free upgrade to a better ballast..

I will never ever do business with CoolTouch Lighting again.

I didnt have a bad experience with them at all and everything was great.. I didnt get the upgraded ballasts as I didnt have that planned into the cash I had for the purchase.. Kim seemed very nice and The product was awesome when I recieved It..
Sorry that you had a bad experience with them.. But I think you would have had worse luck going with somewhere like petsupplyliquidator.com lol

James