My reef started a fire

[PEMfish]

Arson!, Arson!, Arson!,
My reef started a fire!

I was passing through near my bedroom and noticed the strong smell of electrical fire. I hunted the smell into my room (where the reef is ) and immediately named the reef as No1 suspect. But no sing could be found of this fire.
Eventually I found where it took place, at the end of an extension cord behind my bookshelf. The reef however, was the ultimate culprit. It dumped some SW onto the male end of the cord, the fire started at the female side though. About a square foot patch of carpet is totally ruined. and the wall and bookshelf are scorched. I will have to rewire a couple of lamps. I hope my stereo is alright.

I took down my FW and moved to the basement, I am re-setting it up as a SW and will move all reef animals into it ASAP. Once I do that I will take down the reef, move it out of my room, rebuilt it hopefully right, fill it up with tap water and get it right, refill it with RO/DI SW and cycle it in preparation for the returning of the animals to it.

I have planed to do this for awhile, but didn't want to start until my FW was done ( there is a link o that in my sig. )

 

[BigAl07]

Wow! That's scary! Goes to show what COULD happen! So glad you smelled the problem early on.

Allen

 

[sambrinar]

My FW tank did that a few months ago. Must be a conspiroscy

 

[PEMfish]

Al; I had no clue this was going on until a while after the fire, biased on when the timers stopped I would say 45 min.

Brenda; glad yours didn't do much either.

 

[Reddog170]

This is a scary and REAL problem for many people. It is easy to say that simple inspection would prevent this stuff but who is going to inspect everything every day? My solution was this, I took and old ampmeter and set it up on "draw" with a red led lamp. When the draw exceeds the cords rating the lamp will come on alerting me to the problem. I am glad to hear that no major damage was done with yours but have read about many that did not turn out that good. It was this research before I setup my tank that promted me to setup my alert system. Wish there was a way to manufacture some sort of alert system that everyone could get and use. When I was on the volenteer fire dept. I seen many electrical fires that could have been prevented. So lets hope people read this and understand the importance of regular COMPLETE electrical inspection.

 

[aaromano]

I had something like this happen on much smaller scale because I noticed it immediately. What happened was small amount of water got under a plug in a power strip . This small amount of water with dissolved salt started a current between prongs of plug generating heat. Scorched the plastic housing of the powerstrip and the rubber of the plug. Caught it before any 'FIRE" HAPPENED BUT IT WAS ON ITS WAY. You need to look out for salt creep onto electircal equipment as it will cause current to flow where it should not whenit gets damp . Use GFIs around water if at all possible. Tirckle current leaks will trip the circuit before it can cause damage to equipment, you via shock or burning down of house.

 

[chrome91]

that bombs. i had the same thing happen on my 125g, i fired my halides up a little before 9am, and i was going to be home around 2 but i decided to come home for a hour at 1030. thank god i did, one of my halides caught fire. the plastic connector for the wires inside the pendent was crap and caught fire. first thing when i went into the basement i smelt something weird, but i thought it was the furnace or something. then i saw the halide not running and flaming.

luckily all i had to do was replace the connector and all is good

 

[PEMfish]

I ( me doing clumsy stuff ) have spilt small amounts of water on the power strip for my reef before but no problem ever came of it because of my GFCI.

The cord that did cause the problem was running under the reef but has nothing to do with it. It was just victimized by the SW.

 

[Luukosian]

Wow, bad situation but sounds like you lucked out in catching it in time. Could have been a major fire.

 

[PEMfish]

Never did catch it, lucky it took care of its self. I did not find out about it for awhile after. I was home though, but still...

 

[Emg]

nasty business !

I had a light go on me. It was something I had picked up used and was only a small no flourescent fixture for a 10gallon tank. I was home and smelled that electrical smell that you Just KNOW the second you smell it something is NOT right ! I coursed through the house sniffing like my dog till I located the culprit. The top of the fixture was starting to melt. No damage was done to anything thankfully, because I was home at the time....but I shudder to think if it had happened while I was away !

Ever since then.....I don't trust second hand light fixtures anymore.....unless they look to be in excellent condition !

 

[Reddog170]

As you went through the house sniffing like your dog dig you start wanting a bone? LOL. There is nothing wrong with used light fixtures, or for that matter any used electronics, as long as you inspect and test it before you use it. It can look great but all it takes is just a bad connection or a splash of water to cause a problem. Just Check and recheck used stuff before you use it.

 

[RockBox]

You are lucky you caught it in time. This is what happened to mine when the same thing happened.

Luckily no-one was hurt and the insurance co. covered all the damage.

 

[PEMfish]

Oh my God! Glad it was taken care of by insurance but still I am sorry to see that.

 

[islandcreation]

Arson!, Arson!, Arson!,
My reef started a fire!

I was passing through near my bedroom and noticed the strong smell of electrical fire. I hunted the smell into my room (where the reef is ) and immediately named the reef as No1 suspect. But no sing could be found of this fire.
Eventually I found where it took place, at the end of an extension cord behind my bookshelf. The reef however, was the ultimate culprit. It dumped some SW onto the male end of the cord, the fire started at the female side though. About a square foot patch of carpet is totally ruined. and the wall and bookshelf are scorched. I will have to rewire a couple of lamps. I hope my stereo is alright.

I took down my FW and moved to the basement, I am re-setting it up as a SW and will move all reef animals into it ASAP. Once I do that I will take down the reef, move it out of my room, rebuilt it hopefully right, fill it up with tap water and get it right, refill it with RO/DI SW and cycle it in preparation for the returning of the animals to it.

I have planed to do this for awhile, but didn't want to start until my FW was done ( there is a link o that in my sig. )

How did your tank dump saltwater onto the male end? Usually there should be a loop unless water literally poured on the male connection? Just trying to understand what happened so I can correct anything on my tank. Thanks

Oh glad you caught it too!

 

[PEMfish]

Well the outlet is right under the reef, a drip loop would've done nothing. I am not quite sure, but there is a small leak in my closed loop but fixing it is such a task I decided to live with it. I think the weight of the water eventually built up and tipped something over that was under the leak, don't really know.

 

[JoJo]

thats my number one fear. i outlets close to my tank and even some directly over my sump but i invested a couple of dollars on plastic outlet plugs just in case. i just try to take a look at everything when doing w/c.

sorry to hear about the incident and i hope it never happens again.

 

[PEMfish]

Thanks Jojo.