Aquarium Fire

[Tropical Paradise]

Fellow Reefers,


End of November last year, I got a call from my father at home. He told me that my aquarium was on fire. By the time I got home, he had already put out the fire. However, the whole house was covered in black soot. The fire originated from the light fixture. I had a CSL 2x96W PC light fixture that sits on top of the aquarium.

The plastic part of the fixture had melted and fused with plastic braces on the aquarium. Light, filter, water movement, and heater was gone. The water had soot in them. I lost the whole tank. Restoration company came and cleaned the whole house from top to bottom. Soot had gotten into every horizontal surface, including inside of the drawer. Carpet in my dining room was replaced. Dining room and hallway were repainted. Some drapes had to be replaced as well. I lost the whole tank. :cry: :cry:

I guess the lucky thing is, I didn't lose the house. If it weren't for my father being there. I would sure lose everything. After two days, the water begins to foul. There were no heat, no filter, no light. I could not save the tank because I could not seperate the light and the tank. The tank has been covered with some plastic to keep out the ordour. Then, I saw a miracle happen right in front of my eyes. I saw my small Ocellaris Clown clining to the surface, because there were no oxygen in the water. I quickly grab a small net and scooped him/her up. I then proceed to rinse him/her with RO water. I then placed him/her in a small 5 gallon tank that had some liverocks and just a air bubble filter.


To this day, the luck Ocellaris is still alive. I am in the process of rebuilding a reef tank. I am in the stage of curing my liverocks.

If anyone can host some pictures for me, I'd like to post some images of the tank after fire.

Thanks!

[DJ88]

Kai,

Send them to me
Can't host them tonight but tomorrow I can.

[Tau2301]

Incredible story, can't wait to see pictures of the clown.

Is this the same clown fish in the movie Nemo? :mrgreen:

[Tropical Paradise]

Thanks Darren, Sent you those pics.

[DJ88]

Got them. :)

I have to take off now for the evening. But I'll post them here tomorrow.

Pretty scary pics.. :eek:

Cheers

[smokinreefer]

holy :eek:
glad to hear that you and your family are safe.

[DJ88]

http://members.shaw.ca/canreeftank/pix/kai_1.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/canreeftank/pix/kai_2.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/canreeftank/pix/kai_3.jpg

http://members.shaw.ca/canreeftank/pix/kai_4.jpg

[Canadian Man]

:eek: Wow :frown:
That's awful

[Tropical Paradise]

my colt coral (spawned once), my cleaner shrimp, my clown, my Derasa Clam.... :cry: :cry: :cry:


There's a saying in Chinese that "Old Ones don't go, new ones will not come"

:eek:

[Delphinus]

I'm very sorry for your loss.

What would you say are the lessons learned here? Please share your thoughts on this. What was the original failure? Have you spoken to the manufacturers and the retailers? Unfortunately, stuff happens sometimes, but they need to know about this nonetheless (even if they absolve themselves from liability, they need to be told).

[Chad]

Yeah, thats a pretty serious problem if there is some sort of defect in one of the devices you are using. I certainly don't want to buy something that could possibly cause a fire.

Chad

[Tropical Paradise]

hi all,

Insurance company hired a forensic Electric Engineer to investigate the light. The following quote is his view on the matter:

"Hi Kai-Wei,

It is my opinion that this fire started as a result of an overheated fluorescent ballast. The melting and burning of the plastic end of the aquarium top, downwind of the ballast, supports this theory. Two trails of char from the ballast to the end of the reflector also support this theory. In addition, the top of the transparent plastic barrier appeared more severely affected by the heat than the bottom indicating that the ballast was the source of the intense heat.

There were no indications of any modifications to the fixture; it appeared to be in its original condition.

I X-rayed the ballast but could not find any indication on the x-ray to help me understand what failed in the ballast.

Hope that your new light is safer than the former one.

If it makes you feel any better, failures of this type are quite rare."


The fire originated from a overheated ballast, as evident in the photo. In my personal opinion, I think the overheated ballast may be due to fan's inability to pull in fresh-air. The the right side of the ballast is the dust grill. Perhaps dust grill had collected so much dust, that fresh air was not being pulled out of the fan. Thus, resulting in high-temperature in the enclosure. It then leads to a plastic melt-down, which then results in the fire. Although the actual fire was not big. Had it caught on to the ceiling, the whole house would be burned down quilckly. Thank God that my dad was home. And Thank God that he was alright.

This is what I think happened. What are your thoughts?

[Chad]

Was the light still operating during the fire? I am wondering if a ground fault interrupter would have prevented this?

Chad

[Beverly]

Holy CR*P, Kai-Wei :eek:

What a staggering loss :exclaim:

My total sympathies to you, and glad your father and house escaped the fire :sad:

[Jack]

That's scary :confused:

[Tropical Paradise]

Was the light still operating during the fire? I am wondering if a ground fault interrupter would have prevented this?

Chad


The light was opearting when it caught fire. What is a ground fault interrupter do? I am not sure if it will prevent the fire. Just my 2 cents!

[Chad]

The light was opearting when it caught fire. What is a ground fault interrupter do? I am not sure if it will prevent the fire. Just my 2 cents!

The ground fault interrupter will shut off electricity once there is a voltage leak. So my thought is if it shorted before it started the fire the ground fault interrupter would have shut off your equipment, possibly saving the aquarium from the fire.

Chad

[StirCrazy]

The Marks on your power bar.. is that from plastic dripping off the hood? or is that from a seperat short?

Steve

[Tropical Paradise]

The Marks on your power bar.. is that from plastic dripping off the hood? or is that from a seperat short?

Steve

hi Steve,

It's actually the plastic from light fixture and aquarium braces melted and dripped to the powerbar.

[Samw]

Kai-Wei. Looks like others on RC have had similar fires with their CSL fixtures.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=225499

[Quinn]

Class-action lawsuit a possibility?

[ABreefkpr]

Sorry to hear about your troubles Kai-Wei.
Like to share one of my experiences.
I have a 50gal set up with a NO florescent fixture over it. For the longest time the tank was uncovered. One day I noticed a strange smell in the room where the tank was and it seemed to to be coming from the fixture. One of the ends had corroded and was heating up.(no smoke) I'm glad I caught it when I did. Now when I have a fixture so close to the water I always have a piece of glass over the tank.

[Beverly]

Kai-Wei,

Did you eventually rebuild your reef? If so, did you use the rock from the old reef, or get new rock?

[Tropical Paradise]

Kai-Wei,

Did you eventually rebuild your reef? If so, did you use the rock from the old reef, or get new rock?

hi everyone,

thanks for the info. Sorry for the late response. I just came home after spending a week in the States.

I built another reef tank. This time, it's SPS with clams. I did not use the rock from the previous tank. Everything was a total loss. Insurance paid for the new tank. So I didn't complain too much. I will try to post some pics of the new tank.

After been gone for a week, wow! Some of my corals' colours intensified under new placement below the Radium. Cool.....I will post some pics as soon as I get everything back on track.