What was the brand of the light again?

Post by **krisw** » Fri May 25, 2007 8:46 am

Yes, they're the exact same fixture as last year. I've been running mine for the last year without problem. I'm guessing that we might have gotten a few from a bad batch or something this time around. So far, Catalina Aquarium has been more than accommodating replacing Dave's unit, so I'd expect the same for Michaels.

ingg · Post by **ingg** » Fri May 25, 2007 8:49 am

I'd personally suggest everyone take ten minutes, break it down and look inside the ballast.

Mine was the first to go up in smoke I think - when I looked at the ballast, there was a layer of cardboard still *inside* the metal housing of the ballast surrounding the circuit board, and it was covered in black filaments (and the same little smoked filaments were all over the board too) where the heat sinks had been near it....

I've never seen paper products inside a ballast before, not like I examine a ton of them, but paper that close to heat sinks doesn't sound right to me.

EDIT: If I'm right, it isn't bad units, it is someone in a hurry to fill a large order that forgot to pull some packing material from the ballast boards...

Ghazanfar Ghori · Post by **Ghazanfar Ghori** » Fri May 25, 2007 9:20 am

I plugged mine in for a few minutes. No problems. I've been running the unit
from last year for the last 9 months or so with no issues.

plantgirlkim · Post by **plantgirlkim** » Sat May 26, 2007 4:55 pm

My fixture just went up in smokes too!

Today was the first day I turned on the fixture. But before doing that, I followed Dave's advice and took out the paper inside. Then within just one minute of turning the lights on, I heard popping and then smoke. I immediately turned it off!

I can take pics later tonight of where the smoke was coming from.

Kim

Post by **krisw** » Sat May 26, 2007 9:23 pm

I'm sorry to hear this Kim. Catalina Aquarium has advised everyone who has received a defective fixture to do the following. They need you to ship back your unit so that they can verify and investigate the problem, and then they'll replace it with 1-3 business days of receipt. Please ship your unit to the following address:

Catalina Aquarium
8241 Valdez Ave,
Sacramento, CA 95828

When you ship the the fixture back, I would keep the legs. In the package, include a letter stating what happened, that you want a replacement with 6500k bulbs, and include your address so that they can ship the replacement back to you.

We must have gotten a bad batch because we didn't have a single problem last year, and Catalina Aquarium says that they ship about a thousand of these units each week, without reports of problems.

Dave, don't worry about sending your unit back, since you were the first (and only report at the time), they're already shipping your replacement.

plantgirlkim · Post by **plantgirlkim** » Mon May 28, 2007 6:22 pm

OK, will send the fixture back tomorrow

mab · Post by **mab** » Thu May 31, 2007 8:50 am

I'm hoping to get to the post office on Saturday.

Spine · Post by **Spine** » Thu May 31, 2007 10:07 am

In the future should we have everyone check (plug in ect..) equipment at the meetings ? Perhaps that would have saved the later people shipping cost.

Post by **krisw** » Thu May 31, 2007 10:12 am

I guess the expectation was that they'd all work since that was the case last year, but your point is well taken with any sort of electronic device.

What was the brand of the light again?

Sponsors