Recently I got around to replacing the light bulbs in my aquarium. (For those who know anything about them, it’s an Eclipse 3 hood.) I replaced them with the same size and wattage bulbs as it had had before. The lights had stopped working a few months ago, I assumed because of the bulbs.
When I replaced them, everything worked just fine. I figured out that they had gone off before either because the bulbs had burned out OR because the transformer wart had fallen kind of out of the timer power strip. I pushed it back in and had light, timed, for about a week.
A few days ago, I noticed a dead fishie and went to fish him out. While I was rooting around in there, the lights went out. Hmm. Can’t see to excavate dead fishie. I figure the transformer has just fallen out again, so I reach down to mess with it. And it’s HOT. I mean, burning hot. I actually burned my little finger a little bit on it. Electrical panic! Also, I noticed that that the prongs had actually slid INTO the black box of the transformer (and no, it’s not the kind of thing where they flip out or anything.)
What happened? How can I fix it? (Of course, it goes without saying that Mr. Firestarter has been very much unplugged for the time being.)