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Old 12-03-2009, 03:45 PM
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Default Vertex 250W ballasts blew up my fixture!!!

Well you are not going to believe this...

I was at Red Coral, talking with Kevin and Scott (parkinsn) and was all excited and bought some electronic ballasts to replace the ones that come with my current light fixture, along with some more LR.

I get home, take one ballast out of the box, hook it up. When I plug it in, it blows my Ground Fault, I reset try again, blows again. I take the second ballast and test, same thing... I am thinking maybe I now have too much load on this line, so I go get an extension cord and plug into a different electrical line. I then plug in the ballast and then hook up the light.... WELL OH MY GOD!!! I heard explosions, and smoke comes bellowing out the left side of my fixture like a MINI ATOMIC BOMB, and what a smell.

I started freaking, unplugging everything.

THANKS SCOTT AND KEVIN!!! Just kidding, how would you know.

Anyways, I take things apart and try to find what blew, I see some scorching and notice that the igniter module is gone. I removed it and called Kevin.

Kevin went beyond the call of duty, and offered to do anything to fix things... I can say that here is where some may take advantage of a nice guy like him, and try to get a new light... Not me! I took everything back and Kevin went home to grab an old fixture (same as mine) and we robbed it for the parts. I am back up.... Thanks to Red Coral/Kevin

So my question is why did these ballasts blew up my Corallife 4 ft - 2X250W MH, 2X96W PC... Parkinsn said he used similar on his, Kevin has sold third party ballasts for this brand also, so I am confused as is Kevin. Any insight would be appreciated, as I would love to upgrade the ballasts, but not at the cost of blowing up my house.
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Setup: 180G DT, 105G Refuge (approx. 300lbs LR, 150lbs Aragonite)
Hardware: Super Reef Octopus SSS-3000, Tunze ATO, Mag 18 return, 2x MP40W, 2X Koralia 4's Wavemaker
Lighting: 5ft Hamilton Belize Sun (2x250W MH, 2X80W T5HO)
Type of Aquarium: mixed reef (SPS & LPS) with fish
Dosing: Mg, Ca, Alk
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