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Nickz

Nickz

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So, yesterday I got a third nova A8 that needed some repairs( thank you Dustin). I got it repaired and running, went to hang the lights this morning and a clip broke sending 2 of my 3 lights swimming.... back to square 1 on my lighting on my 180. And if course do you think a falling light could miss some corals on its way down? of course not.

Bad day indeed, now I have to figure out how to light the tank again. On the plus side my GFI worked flawlessly.
 
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If you had them on a GFCI, you might be able to save them. Open them up, soak up and water you can see, and blow a fan into them for a day or two. I dropped one of my Chinese ones into the tank, and it came back to life after a good drying.
 
The only part that worries me is the controllers seem to be very susceptible to water. They are chilling in the tub while I at least try to get my 3 mars aqua fixtures up so there is at least some light (not quite enough) vs no lights
 
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As long as the power cut out instantly, they might be OK.
 
well at least I still had the marsaqua fixtures, there will at least be light over the tank now. I'm hoping the A8's survived since the olny thing that was powered up was the controllers. All i can do at this point is dry them out and hope the power wires created the short vs controllers creating the short.
 
:doh::bln-ruhroh:

I feel for you! I've been there!
Hopefully, you're able to save the lights. Don't try to rush into seeing if they work until you're absolutely sure they're dry enough; and then wait another week before you do so.
I can still remember that feeling of when it happened. :swear::swear::swear:
Almost makes you sick to your stomach when it happened, doesn't it?! UGH!!!
 
Since my hands were on the chains for the fixtures all I could do was watch them go bubbling as they went, I almost grabbed the second one before I thought about electricity and water combo, fortunately the gfi tripped and I saw the display turn off almost right away on the second one. They are opened up with a fan blowing into them. Not sure how long to leave them like this but I figure a few days for sure. I know I have flooded the carpet before (waterchange day) and it only took 3-4 days of fan on high to dry it completely.

 
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Crap dude - that sucks!

Leave em drying for a good week and see what happens - crossing my fingers for ya
 
Crap!!!!!!!!!

I've lost 2 auto fish feeders in the tank, and I thought I had it bad. Sorry about that.
Did you wash them off in fresh water prior to letting them dry? I would think the salt would be pretty caustic if not washed off.
 
No, didn't think about the saltwater just thought about getting them dry
 
I would think you'd want to wash them off...but I don't think I'd take my advice on that.
 
Pop out the controllers and put them in dry rice, or in a sealed container with desiccant packets in it. You'll need to draw the moisture out of them.

Also rinse everything that had salt water on it with RO water. You need to get the salt off before it corrodes.
 
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Got 1 fixture working again minus moonlights, other is doing strange things. Both with the controller that went swimming and one that didn't. But it is progress. Next is swap out a couple drivers and see if that changes it to right.
 
Nzac said:
Got 1 fixture working again minus moonlights, other is doing strange things. Both with the controller that went swimming and one that didn't. But it is progress. Next is swap out a couple drivers and see if that changes it to right.
Click to expand...

Good thing you got that box of spare parts. :cool:
 
Yessir, that box of parts has fixed 2 lights now(1 controller and 4 drivers. Got second light working again. Now I just have to find a couple moonlight drivers and both lights good as new.
 
Just remember the controllers in the box do have a defect. If they lose power they default back to the out of the box programming until you go into the settings and view you custom programing.
 
I did use one last weekend and it seemed to have held its settings after swimming and being unplugged for 4 days, and if they lose power it's at least only 1 of 3 that will lose setting. Now I just have to find the tiny moon light drivers and a better mounting system and they can go back on the 180.
 
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Cool, just keep an eye on that one if you ever have a power outage. It won't lose the custom setting, it just does not use them until you go in and look at the settings.
 
well, dry run on floor today, it appears one fixture is still wonky. nothing is supposed to be on but 1 channel of whites is running anyway.
 
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