ian cooper
September 6th, 2003, 03:18 PM
Hi all,
I hope someone whose familiar with electronics can help me out on this one. I built a canopy a couple of years ago which houses 2 250 MH and 4 40 watt NO fluorescents. Thing worked fine. Two fans were wired together and the fluorescents were wired together. Both of these were plugged into a timer so that when the actinics came on the fans started. The MH's were on a separate timer to come on 1 hour later. Now the problem. When I transfered my stock back into the tank I dropped the canopy a little and one of the fluorescents broke. No big deal. When I replaced the bulb, every time the MH's came on the GFCI that the fluorescents were in tripped. I replaced all the fluorescent sockets, same thing. I hope I can explain a little better...
The fluorescents are plugged into a GFCI on a breaker. The MH's are plugged into a GFCI on a completely separate breaker. The fluorescents are fine if they are on alone, however, when the MH's come on the GFCI that the fluorescents are on trips. Not only that but when I was experimenting, it turns out that even if the plugs from the MH ballasts are plugged into a power bar (any bar, I tried several) and the power bar is turned off, the GFCI on the fluorescents still trips. What the heck is going on?
When I dropped the canopy did a short develop on one of the fluorescent wires (they are not grounded). The MH sockets and the aluminium reflector are of course grounded. I am assuming that a short in the fluorescents somewhere is grounded when the MH's are plugged in, thus tripping the CFGI the fluorescents are on, even if there is no power supplied to the MH's.
If there is an electrician out there that can comment it would be appreciated. I would prefer to narrow down the possible problems before taking apart the canopy as the canopy is not easily disassembled. I hope someone can help. Thanks and sorry for the long post and excessive use of the word "fluorescent".
Ian
I hope someone whose familiar with electronics can help me out on this one. I built a canopy a couple of years ago which houses 2 250 MH and 4 40 watt NO fluorescents. Thing worked fine. Two fans were wired together and the fluorescents were wired together. Both of these were plugged into a timer so that when the actinics came on the fans started. The MH's were on a separate timer to come on 1 hour later. Now the problem. When I transfered my stock back into the tank I dropped the canopy a little and one of the fluorescents broke. No big deal. When I replaced the bulb, every time the MH's came on the GFCI that the fluorescents were in tripped. I replaced all the fluorescent sockets, same thing. I hope I can explain a little better...
The fluorescents are plugged into a GFCI on a breaker. The MH's are plugged into a GFCI on a completely separate breaker. The fluorescents are fine if they are on alone, however, when the MH's come on the GFCI that the fluorescents are on trips. Not only that but when I was experimenting, it turns out that even if the plugs from the MH ballasts are plugged into a power bar (any bar, I tried several) and the power bar is turned off, the GFCI on the fluorescents still trips. What the heck is going on?
When I dropped the canopy did a short develop on one of the fluorescent wires (they are not grounded). The MH sockets and the aluminium reflector are of course grounded. I am assuming that a short in the fluorescents somewhere is grounded when the MH's are plugged in, thus tripping the CFGI the fluorescents are on, even if there is no power supplied to the MH's.
If there is an electrician out there that can comment it would be appreciated. I would prefer to narrow down the possible problems before taking apart the canopy as the canopy is not easily disassembled. I hope someone can help. Thanks and sorry for the long post and excessive use of the word "fluorescent".
Ian