OUR HOOD CAUGHT ON FIRE

[klg1824]

ok so we had a bit of a problem tonight. We have a 150 gallon reef tank with fish, coral, and clams. We made our hood about 5 months ago and haven't had a problem with it. It was so hard to put together and took a lot of time and energy. Tonight, our hood caught on fire, and we lost about half of it. The fish and corals are fine since we caught it on time, but we want to look into getting a ready made hood of metal halide lights. This is what I was looking at on marinedepot.com:
High quality canopy with glossy black exteror and electro-white high reflective corrosionproof finish for interior of canopy
T-1 super quiet ball bearing cooling fan
UV stabilized absorbing lens
Optional 2nd fan for extra heat displacement. Very useful for reef systems!!!
Very versatile. You can upgrade your order to higher wattage and kelvin MH bulbs. You have the option to chose between: STD (standard output flourescent bulbs), VHO (very output flourescent bulbs), or PC (compact bulbs).
11 1/2" wide and 6 1/4" high. All lamps are included.
Remote ventilated, enclosed ballast with 10' power cord
Independent on/off controls for Metal Halide and fluorescent lights
Amp quick-disconnect plugs to ease connection and disconnection between fixture and ballast
These are custom-built lighting systems. Please allow a lead time of 3-5 business days for assembly.

It is 5 feet and has 3 metal halide bulbs. Is this good for the fish, corals, and clams? will they thrive with this lighting? do you know what the light looks like in the tank? any info would be extremely helpful!
Katrina

 

[fishfreek]

with 3 bulbs will any of them be over a center brace? if so you might not be happy with the shaddow that is cast into the tank.

Thats awful to hear about the fire. Any idea as to what caused it? A short in the wiring?

I take it this premade hood is using 175W mh bulbs. The 150 is kind of a tall tank so 250W mh bulbs might be a better fit.

What was your former lighting setup?

 

[klg1824]

the previous lighting set up was vho and actinic lights. a lot fo them!

 

[klg1824]

what does the shadow thing mean? how can we tell if it is over the center brace?

 

[loganj]

I would check with www.championlighting.com and www.hellolights.com as well before I bought anything. I hate to hear about the fire but I'm glad nothing more than the hood was lost. What kind of ballast were you using?

 

[Michel]

Can only say that I am happy that nothing happened to you and your famaly and you house ! This could have happened while you were away !
God bless !

 

[klg1824]

we actually live in an apartment building on the 19th floor...we are laughing about it now but it was kind of scary before!

 

[fishfreek]

Unlike florecent bulbs MH bulbs originate their light from one specific point in the hood. Just like the sun this causes a shadow effect. This shadow effect is what gives the tank the apperance of water ripples because of how the light is reflected/bent with the water movement at the surface. If there is something between the tank and the bulb (ie a center brace) then the brace will cause a shadow to be cast into the tank. I dont have a 150 so I cant say if there are center braces and if their are if there is 1 or 2 braces. If there is only one brace then its very possible that a hood with 3 MH bulbs would have one of those bulbs directly over the center brace. if there are two braces then its possible the bulbs will wind up close to the center of each open area.

How to know for sure would require knowing the exact placment of the bulbs in the hood. IE is is the center one directy centered over the middle of teh tank and the other two 6" from the edges? You would probaly have to contact the manufacture to get that information. Once you have it you can transfer those measurements to your tank to see where the bulbs will end up.

 

[wseaton]

Actually I find this post a bit scary. Considering the possible consequences had you not been home....and this being an apartment building {shutter}

This also why I think we need to be cautious about our enthusiasm for MH lighting, and especially retrokits. Installing these things in standard wooden hoods without adequate cooling or spacing with the MH mount creates a bomb waiting to go off.

 

[BillyZ]

just so it's clear, I believe the original poster stated the lights in the hood that caught fire were VHO, not MH.

 

[gooyferret]

No way the VHO's would have caused that fire they just dont burn hot enough. You can put your hand on a VHO and its hot but still. what kind of canopy did you have them in? Did you have moisture resistant endcaps?

 

[astride13]

Any pics?

 

[wseaton]

I'm wondering if the ballasts were the culprit in this case??? Hmmm.

I was looking inside the hood of the reef tank at a local LFS and noticed the 250watt MHs had melted half a foot wide holes in the in the plastic water guards sitting on the tank. The lights were about 10" above the plexi.....No thanks.

 

[nugrad2005]

Hey everyone, i know its been a while since i posted, but i was actually the one that was "first on the scene" of the fire. Earlier in the day we noticed one of our 4' actinics was out so we took the bulb off and realized that a wirewas loose. We hooked the wire back up but the light still wouldn't work. A couple of hours later the hood was on fire. The plastic fitting was completely melted as were most of the wires in the hood. While replacing the wiring we nudged one of the VHO's and it just snapped right into a million little pieces. The fire must have weakened the bulb to the point that a little bit of pressure was just too much. I will try to take some pictures this afternoon and post them up here. The ballasts we're using are just regular old GE ballasts; nothing that is specifically designed for aquariums.

There is a center support in the middle of the tank, but it is glass so the light should pass right through. We're not too worried about shadows in the tank. The new hood should we awesome, its unfortunate that the old hood has to burn though.

Thats all for now. We'll keep you updated.

-Dan