Oops... water +wiring

A

Animal Mother

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I accidentally got some saltwater on the wiring harness for the VHO's over our 60 cube yesterday. Didn't realize it until I smelt it burning. I shut it off and unplugged it, let it dry. Plugged it in this morning and it works fine... but I don't feel safe using it now.

I guess my question is, where can I buy a new one?
 
If you have an electronics store, not a radio shack, but an accual electronics store you should be able to find these. I put a set on a T5 retrofit and found these for a couple dollars. Hope this helps, maybe someone in the area will know of the store you need to go to.
 
I hate VHO's so bad, lucky for them they make the tank look so good.

This weekend the 430 ARO ballast that fires my super actinics went out, so I replaced it. Since I bought an icecap, that meant I also had to replace the wiring harness since it's 100% different than ARO, splice in a power cord because icecap is too lame to include one in the ballast, and replace two of the end caps that I broke trying to take it all apart.

After all that, I wired the thing wrong at least twice because the wiring diagram is completely different than the 430 I used before. The 660 has dozens of plausable two-bulb wiring configurations, only one of them will work, and you have at least four different wires left over that don't do anything when you're done.

On top of that, when I finished I had an open circuit because one of the new end caps wasn't on tight.
 
Great... sounds like I'm in for a lot of fun.

Well for now I'm only going to run the lights on that tank when I'm home. I insulated it pretty heavily with electric tape, but I don't expect that to fire proof it. Maybe I can pay someone who knows what they're doing.... any takers?
 
From the looks of it, the Ballast is an ARO 440LX. I've seen the harnesses with endcaps for a 4 bulb setup running around 50 bucks. I use the same Ballast running 4 T5's (not recommended but it works). I had to make the harness myself using a power plug from a computer power supply.
It Might be worthwhile to cut the plug off and replace it. With a crimper and a matching plug you should be able to get it done in 20 mins. Once you have the new end on it, fill in the wire end with Silicone to keep moisture out. Plug it in and wrap electrical tape around the plug and receptacle then put a tie wrap around that (Added peace of mind).
 
When wiring, go to Radio Shack and buy some electrical tube shrink wrap. (That is not the official name, but they will know what you are talking about.) Basically what it is is a tube that you slip your wires and connectors thru prior to connecting. Then you run a lighter or hair dryer under it very quickly and it shrinks to about 1/10 it's original size creating a water resistant seal. I use the term water resistant because it probably will not keep water out if it was submerged, but for a lighting application, it is perfect.

Hope this helps.

A
 
The plug end should not have any issues what I would do is go to lowes/home depot and get you some contact cleaner in the electrical isle and un plug the connector and hose it down with the cleaner, let dry and the plug back in and e tape it real good and forget about it. the salt water is about 20x more conductive than fw and thats why your were smelling burning it was burning the salt water off. After a good cleaning and tape it up dry it will be good to go and no fire hazard. I'm a lic electrician and plumber and Refrigeration Tech! So maybe my .02 might help you. If you got any questions feel free to shoot me a pm and I can help you out. Plus you dont live too far from me either.
 
I cleaned it up and wrapped it up with electric tape and a few days later my girlfriend smelled the burning again... checked it out and there's a hole fried through the plastic connector. The part that goes to the ballast is fine, but the other side is compromised.

I had one house burn down several years ago... don't wanna go through that again.

I'm not sure what kind of ballast this is, no indication. It was all bought with the tank.
 
Sounds like the connection plug wasn't cleaned good enough probley some salt corrosion on the pins. Now the connector has to be replaced. Try to get us a picture of the ballast so we might help you out on what type it is and help you find the right wiring harness.
 
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As an electrician myself, I would either find someone here on the boards to come help you with this or I would see if a small electrical contractor would repair this for you. I used to do a lot of rewiring and replacing ballast for a shop i used to work for, there is probably one there that would be able to help. I fixed one of these for a buddy here in Abilene not too long ago that looked very similar with the hole in the side of the tape. It is definitely loose connection. I hope that someone in your area on the board might be able to check it out for you.
 
@Animal Mother wrote:
I cleaned it up and wrapped it up with electric tape and a few days later my girlfriend smelled the burning again... checked it out and there's a hole fried through the plastic connector. The part that goes to the ballast is fine said:
I agree with the earlier poster who ID'ed it as an ARO 440 ballast. Those are basically icecap knockoffs.

What's probably wrong is that one of the pins isn't making proper contact with the wire in the harness. So when the light turns on, it arcs to complete the circuit, burning your electrical tape and harness. That or salt creep in the harness is causing it to burn the tape. I wouldn't run something that could cause a fire.

I just had an ARO that looks exactly like yours knock off a few weeks ago. I replaced it with a 660, with no issues so far. The hardest part was wiring the new harness, icecap makes you wire the power plug and ground wires.
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