HELP! RSM 250 with Steve’s LED’s upgrade

[SysQ]

Hey all, I’m in Perth, Western australia, first post here. So I have a RSM 250 that have the older Steve’s LED’s upgrade to it. Now several months ago the lights blew somehow, I thought it was the power supply so I bought a new one to no avail, I contacted Steve’s LED’s and they suggested it was more than likely the drivers so I purchased new drivers and installed them as per instructions, still no luck.

I was then told my power supply (LRS-200-24) May not be completely adequate and probably won’t last as long so I then purchased an LRS-350-24 which also did not work. Now it’s months later, my coral and anemones all pretty much dead, I still have no lights and I’ve spent a bunch of money with no solution.

The moon lights do still come on when I wriggle around the black power cord within the inside of the tank hood which I have attached as a picture of me holding it. Has anyone else had a similar issue or have an idea how to resolve this? I love my tank and the hobby but I’m lost as to how to get this fixed now.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Pat24601]

I have had similar issues. In my case, after a lot of trouble shooting with Steve’s, it turned out one of the red power wires on the heat sink had chopped in two but it wasn’t that noticeable because it didn’t move and still looked connected to the naked eye. Once I figured that out, it was a super simple matter to strip the wire a bit, put it in the connector, and voila all the sudden the lights worked.

So, I have mixed opinion. On the one hand, I think you have been going through the proper steps to try to troubleshoot this. On the other hand, as you can tell troubleshooting it is extremely time consuming and difficult because it could be lots of different things and by email and phone there is only so much Steve’s can really tell about what’s going on.

I can tell you when I found my cut wire it was literally the last thing I was doing where I was checking every single wire before I was going to give up and get a new batch.

Which brings me to an alternative, but expensive idea. The new Steve’s modules are much, much easier to install and troubleshoot than the originals. I know as I’ve done both.

If you have ample cash, you could just get a new set.

That said, there is really no reason you shouldn’t be able to get your current lights to work. I doubt that they are truly broken. Just glitched up somewhere. I’m just not sure it’s that easy to troubleshoot the problem.

You may want to try what I did and VERY GENTLY pull on every wire you see and make sure one isn’t sliced off..particularly the red power ones.

 

[DaveK]

I would also add that you don't want to let a tank run without any lighting for months. Ger something for lighting over the tank. This could be a couple of cheep T12 shop light fixtures or cheep CFL lights. This would be far from ideal, but at least you'd have something.