Don't do this

[DEADFISH1]

do not remove the glass from the lid of your 7 Gal bow front while using a 32 watt CSL smart light kit.
why you may ask?
SALT CREEP IN YOUR LIGHT SOCKET WILL CAUSE A FIRE!!!!!!
ok I'll feel better now,

[ March 12, 2002: Message edited by: DEADFISH ]</p>

 

[Roach]

How long did you have the light set up before it caught fire? Was there water splashing on it from a powerhead or something? I have an 18 gallon tall setup with two 32 watt smartlight retros on the hood. There is no glass top on mine either. It's been running about 7 months with no problems and I rarely get salt creep on the bulbs. Just wondering so I can put a fire extinguisher next to the tank.

 

[scooterr]

hey, That's fun! Yea, That's what the lids are for.
I've got a fire story.
At the tank I'm set up at my high school There are some "helpers". They feed them daily and clean the glass. One day I asked if they could top off the water and use the 2 gallon container with a valve at the bottom. They did it but put the hole of the container running down the back of the tank. It dripped down into the section where the powerstrips were mounted (not any more) and started a fire in the middle of class! THe teacher got the fire extingisher, put it out, and unplugged everything. The prongs melted off most of the equipment and burnt a transformer (for an auto feeder). Now we have a resivoir and a float valve!

 

[Dan Bee]

I had the same Smartlite as you and had salt-creep which caused me to get shocked like a bastard. It was soon after that I put a plexi-glass top on it and got a GFCI. I don't know how well those things are wired 'cause I had nothing but problems with it and finally scrapped it for a JBJ unit. IMO, there's nothing more unpleasant than trying to work on your tank with the fear of getting shocked. I've never had aggressive or poisonous fish (except for a foxface) so I've never had that worry.

 

[DEADFISH1]

If I remember right, I think it was about 5 month's ago that I removed the glass, I did so thinking that I could get more light into the tank, don't know for sure if it really made any difference, but yea I had to clean the bulbs every once in a while due to splash, I think it's just because the light fixture on the 7 gal bow front tanks are so close to the water line, If I was to guess, I believe it's about 1/2" from the water line.
luckily though all I had to replace was the socket itself for 10 bucks, every thing else is still working, it really didn't actually catch on fire, I was just being dramatic, it was smoking and the light was flickering, after I unplugged it I discovered that it had burned a hole in the socket, I bet if I hadn't of caught it it would have caught on fire.

 

[JeremyR]

I've seen several of the CSL smart/brite strips burn out at the endcaps, but haven't seen that from the retros.. but salt creep in any non-waterproof socket will do that for you. The strip lights that burn out is a defect as they do it sometimes within hours of being plugged in the first time and those are the ones with the "waterproof" sockets!