Corallife pc cleaning info

[mandarin w]

Well I've talked about it before, and I thought tonight I would take picture and show you how to do it. We spend a lot of money on our equipment, and unfortantly they don't include cleaning instructions with these light. If the lights are not properly cared for, the fans clog up and can not run to cool the lights properly, and your lights will overheat. Causeing them to burn up, or worse yet cause a fire. Since I have been in this hobby I have know two fellow hobbies who's home caught fire because their lights over heated, and many who lights fired out in a year or two. So hear it is.
I got this info a while back after talking to someone at Corallife.com.
I do not know if this will work for any of the other lights, you would have to look at your lights and see how they are made. If it is a simular design.
You will need these items to clean the fans, DO NOT USE ANY WATER.

A small thin knive to slide under the fan covers and slide them over and up. and two cleanin brushes, one that can fit in between the very small blades of the fan.

These are your corallife pc's, you have two sets of fan covers on the light unit. One side is intake, pull the air into the light unit and pulls it through the fan, the other side are where the fans are located, these fan work for exaust only. they do not push air in the fan, just pull it thru.

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This is the intake, not much there, but check and make sure there is not a bunch of junk or dust inside to block the flow.

These are the fans. push the cover over and pop them up, just like the other side. Carefully pull the fans off the top. But don't yank them they have wires attached that you must unplug.

The white clip is just a plug, just like any other plug, gently unplug the fan from the light unit.

 

[mandarin w]

After you have the fans unpluged, use your butter knife to gently pry apart the cover off the fan, the the fan will come next, and then there is the base.

Once you have them apart, use the brushes to clean off any junk
on the fans, use the small bottle type brush to clean in between the fan blades. Keep it as best you can.

After you have all the pieces of the fan cleaned, put them back together and plug it back into the light, and clean the other one. When you are done clean the rest of the light, taking off salt creep, and the dust that builds up on it. and there it is. You light is as good as new.

It will run better, and will not over heat and fry out.
This is how I clean my lights at least once every two months. and my light are around 4 to 5 years old.
I hope the info here helps you keep you lights for a long time.

 

[lpuzon]

wow! u're so kind. i have the orbit fixture. maybe i can try some of that. thanks!!!

 

[mandarin w]

I would check it very carefully before pulling it apart. Like I said before. I got this advice when I went to corallife.com and talked to someone there. And even at that they didn't readily give the info out.
You got to realize this is a little money maker for these companies. Without instructions to clean these fans on these light properly, most of the time they get overlooked, or just wiped off on the outside top. And the dust, moisture from the tank, salt get pulled thru the light fixture to build up and clog these fan real well. The fans quit working as well as they should about month 7 to 9, and by month 12, the don't move at all. Then around month 13 the light overheat and stop working. Just about the time your warrenty has expirered. "To bad for you" And as for the two guys who homes caught fire, They were told to send the lights back the corallife and they would see why the light units caught fire. After a week or to Corallife said that they were in now way responsible, It is up to you to take care of, and properly clean your equipment. And if you don't do so that is your problem.
And it is not just corallife, (I am not just digging in to them) all of the companies do the same. They want your lights to last just over the 1 year mark. Then you will need to go get new lights again. This hobby is expensive as it is, without haveing to go out and buy new lights every year.

 

[northreef]

Thanks Mandarin, that is the same fixture I purchased. I am still in the buying and planning stage

I never even thought about light maintenance, it will be a great help once my setup is up and running