Re: Splashing flourescents

To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
Subject: Re: Splashing flourescents
From: Hoa Nguyen <nguyenh at nosc_mil>
Date: Wed, 19 Feb 1997 16:55:35 -0800

>From: George Booth <booth at hpmtlgb1_lvld.hp.com>
>Subject: Re: Splashing flourescents & mylar

>Gee, I also don't have a cover between my lights and the water.  Tell
>me how this is "very dangerous". 

I have a story about that to tell, since I don't have a cover between the
lights and the water either.  

Over the Christmas week, I was away and asked my brother to come over to
feed the fish occasionally.  Evidently, he let the hood dropped down too
hard the last time he fed the fish, because when I got back from the trip, I
found one of my fluorescent tubes *working* with one end submerged!

Evidently, the waterproof endcap worked wonderfully, so the light still
worked partially submerged.  Incidentally, I stuck my hand in and fished the
light out with it ON!  Either very trusty of my GFI circuit, or incredibly
stupid.  ;-)

Back to the original question, although the scenario is improbable, it is
conceivable that a lighted bulb with a leaky endcap could drop into the
water as you are working on your tank with your hands in the water and your
tank is not GFI protect.  Whew!  But on the other hand, even if you have a
cover, you'd probably have removed it to work on your tank.  

So... the only danger I can see with not having a cover is... to your fish.
Your bulb could drop into the tank while you're not there, triggering the
circuit breaker, and you can loose a few fish due to your heater/filter not
working, but that would be dangerous to your fish, not you.  Anyone see any
other scenario?  ;-)

Hoa