Electrifying

[storrisch]

I learned tonight that my 250w aquamedic ballast can and will shock the F out of me. I decided to take the pendant apart and clean it really well and redo some of the wiring (I am by no means an electrician.) Put it back together....no light. Swap two wires try again no light. Touch exposed bulb grasp fixture harder due to electrical shock. Enough electricity that is split my pinky finger open. Time for bed. I will try again to make it work tomorrow this time I will only adjust things if everything is unplugged.

[Sea monkey]

ouch !

[storrisch]

on a positive note I have not felt this awake in a long time

[eswebster]

LOL.... sorry to hear you fried yourself, always a good idea to unplug things when messing around with the wiring. Chalk it up to a learning experience....

[Jubei]

I was meaning to shoot you a message asking how the pendant was working out for you. Let me know if you can't get the bulbs to re-fire. I can take a peek at it if you want and if the unit is broken, I can take it back. With my AM e-ballast, I have to wait a certain amount of time after power down for it to work again. I don't think the magnetic ballast has that safety mechanism. Probably a good idea in the future to unplug the pendant from the ballast before you take apart the pendant. Even after you unplug the ballast cord, I would think the charge from the capacitor can give a nice shock.

[REEFSTOCK]

New fro?

Glad the damage wasn't perminate!

[mmHg]

Chassis ground the ballast to the same ground cable as the rest of your tank. Tie in the power cable ground as well. Ground the tank with a probe, and wire the whole thing through a GFCI outlet. Voila! No more Einstein hairdos!

[Loverotties]

Originally Posted by mmHg

Chassis ground the ballast to the same ground cable as the rest of your tank. Tie in the power cable ground as well. Ground the tank with a probe, and wire the whole thing through a GFCI outlet. Voila! No more Einstein hairdos!

So true!