GayFishie Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I had an incident where my led light fell in the water a few days ago. I unplugged it and dried it off before turning it on again. When it came on three lights were out and four more were flickering so I shut it down and ordered a new one. Well about a week later I tried again and all lights came on and stayed on. Is it safe to use again? The three lights that had been out flickered and turned on but are very dim Link to comment
GayFishie Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 Tinkered with it. Now three lights are bright again Link to comment
pntbll687 Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 I had an incident where my led light fell in the water a few days ago. I unplugged it and dried it off before turning it on again. When it came on three lights were out and four more were flickering so I shut it down and ordered a new one. Well about a week later I tried again and all lights came on and stayed on. Is it safe to use again? The three lights that had been out flickered and turned on but are very dim Yea, mixing water and electrical stuff does some crazy stuff. Had the same thing with a diy light I use on a small tank, I just let it dry out for a couple days and things have been fine. I would test it on an outlet away from the tank, run it for an hour or so, then turn it off, back on, run it for a couple more hours. Just test it for a while before you put it back on the tank. If any of the lights dim or blink I would not use it, just because im not an electrical guy and I would be worried about leaking current into the tank somehow. Link to comment
Mojado Posted September 1, 2015 Share Posted September 1, 2015 Man, salt water is sooooo corrosive. I'd toss it. Plain old H2O is not conductive, but when you add ions in there (from salt and other crap), it conducts electricity pretty well. The saltwater might have initially shorted some components out (not provide power to them) and thus your light was acting funky. Once the water dried and you lost the conductive paths that weren't supposed to be there, it was working fine. But now, that saltwater started a corrosive process (rust) that's going to eat away at the electronics. You don't know how that light is going to fail . . .but it will eventually fail . . .and it may fail in a fiery mess. It's not worth it. Toss it and figure out why the light fell in the first place and fix the problem so your new light doesn't fall in the water. Link to comment
GayFishie Posted September 1, 2015 Author Share Posted September 1, 2015 It fell in because the brackets on it gave. I have a new light coming in a few days. The three lights that were dim flickered on and off for about a half hour at first but after an hour they stayed on full brightness without any flickering. Between you (all of you) and me I have family visiting who might help me fill it with some pretty kickass livestock but only if they think it's cool enough to spend money on. It doesn't look great under my 20 watt freshwater light And it is an evo light, 72watt with 24x3w leds in blue and white. I believe it is 1650 lumens My tank is a 20 gallon reef, fairly new at about five months old with seven hermit crabs, five snails, and an evil coral banded shrimp named Redrum. No fish, probably adding a clownfish this week Oh and several coral, mostly softies (zoas, plays, mushrooms, ricordia, kenya tree, unnamed polyp I think is pipe organ) and a single hammer coral as my only lps Link to comment
Exodus Posted September 2, 2015 Share Posted September 2, 2015 when water sits on a circuit board it creates a short(s) as electricity will always follow the shortest path, the water was acting as the shortest sending current in places it shouldn't have. When the board was completely dry the current just traveled down it's typical paths. So can you still use it? Yes, it is safe to use, though will there be repercussions? Absolutely, Salt is corrosive therefore anything it sits on will begin to erode (Your PCB) Is it fixable? Yup! Just open up the housing get to that board, remove it. I would then get some paper towels and apply a mixture of Rubbing Alcohol and Water from a squirt bottle to the paper towel (thick blue Automotive ones) and gently go over the board ensuring all salt creep is removed. Then be sure to go back over with a dry towel ensuring the board is completely dry and free of anything else, then reassemble. Link to comment
tk-it-ez Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 I wouldn't toss it. I would do what Exodus said and I would also use the electronic compressed air duster can to remove any dry debris and reassemble it again. If you still want to toss it, I can buy it from you. Link to comment
Mojado Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 I doubt there's room in the price of that light for use of hermetically sealed parts. The no way of getting that salt out of those ICs. A $100 light is not worth the risk of burning your house down. Link to comment
D Z Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Plain old H2O is not conductive, What? Link to comment
shrimpzoo Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 agreed, i wouldnt use the light. the exact same thing happened yo me a couple weeks ago i decided to keep using the led, however a few days later the led started smoking and stopped working. water and electricity dont mix well. Link to comment
Mojado Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 What?Hydrogen has one valence electron looking to pair up with another valence electron. Oxygen has six, needing two to fill its outer shell. . .so one oxygen pairs nicely with two hydrogens. . .H2O. There's no unbonded electrons in H2O, therefore it conducts current (flow of electrons) very poorly. If you put other crap in the water with ions (free electrons or missing electrons), then the nature of water allows those ions to conduct current. So pure H2O doesn't conduct current. It's the basic property of how your TDS meter works. They even make water fire extinguishers to be used around electricity using deionized water because it doesn't conduct electricity. Link to comment
D Z Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Hydrogen has one valence electron looking to pair up with another valence electron. Oxygen has six, needing two to fill its outer shell. . .so one oxygen pairs nicely with two hydrogens. . .H2O. There's no unbonded electrons in H2O, therefore it conducts current (flow of electrons) very poorly. If you put other crap in the water with ions (free electrons or missing electrons), then the nature of water allows those ions to conduct current. So pure H2O doesn't conduct current. It's the basic property of how your TDS meter works. They even make water fire extinguishers to be used around electricity using deionized water because it doesn't conduct electricity. Well I guess I learned something today.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Geqf2jaDRrk&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGeqf2jaDRrk&has_verified=1 Link to comment
charnelhouse Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 Well I guess I learned something today.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Geqf2jaDRrk&oref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGeqf2jaDRrk&has_verified=1 Yup, pure H2O is not a conductor. It's all of the conductive minerals in "regular" or saltwater that make it conductive. Link to comment
GayFishie Posted October 19, 2015 Author Share Posted October 19, 2015 Hi. It took of the end caps and cleaned best I could. Light board doesnt open up. Lights were a little wonky for a few days but it has been a few weeks and all lights are on full blast and working perfectly no salt buildup, no overheating or smoking. So it looks like at least for now I am in the clear. In fact the light is to bright right now. Lol. Some of my corals are looking a bit pale so i set up my rock work to give them shade Link to comment
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