URGENT help please, something smells funny (light)

Hey there, I was just in the room next to my grow box today and I heard a fizzing of sorts and then a really strong smell emitted from my grow room. It smelt like something burning, maybe electrical I dunno. I checked it out, the lamp works fine, all electrical are fine, no smoke no fire.

One thing is that I do have a wasp infestation of sorts in my grow room and I think one of them maybe flew into the light and burnt itself and that was the funny smell, but I am not sure because it was such a strong smell and I doubt it could have come from 1 wasp. Also I have found burnt wasps before in the room, like charcoal burnt. Just wondering if it could be my lights burning/malfunctioning, has anyone smelt that really distinctive smell before?

I have got a heater in there atm with my sprouts to keep them warm while I figure this out, once the bulb has cooled down ill take it out and give it a clean to see if I can find anything on it but from first glace it looked fine, no like giant bulbous piece of melting glass coming off it or anything.

Hope I can get an answer soon as I need the light back on for my sprouts to keep the heat up.

Thanks a bunch!

Type of light?

bugs incinerating always smell funny, but an electrical short or spark will have that distinctive ozone odor. It was probably a wasp.

400 watt mh, i hope if it has realised fumes they aren't toxic, cause I breathed a shit load of it in

shnkrmn said:

bugs incinerating always smell funny, but an electrical short or spark will have that distinctive ozone odor. It was probably a wasp.

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What would you liken an ozone odor to? Also I heard fizzing as well, not sure if this was the sound of the wasp getting incinerated, but it didn't last too long and the smell came at the same time. I have a fuse protector thing attachted to my set up as well dunno if that would stop an electrical short/spark.

Also would wasps blood/plasma act like water on an MH bulb and cause it to explode?

Anyway i'll be going out to find some insulation foam and caulk to plug up these holes the wasps are getting through, cause honestly that scared the shit out of me, thought the bulb would explode and destroy everything xD.

Ah I have another question, sorry guys. I turned my lights off and I am just wondering if I can go back to 24/0 after having them off for like 6 hours? Or should I stick to 18/6 now that I have left the sprouts in teh dark for 6 hours, I don't want to stress them anymore than need be ahhh my babies! P.s. this is my first grow as well.

Burnt Bud said:

What would you liken an ozone odor to? Also I heard fizzing as well, not sure if this was the sound of the wasp getting incinerated, but it didn't last too long and the smell came at the same time. I have a fuse protector thing attachted to my set up as well dunno if that would stop an electrical short/spark.

Also would wasps blood/plasma act like water on an MH bulb and cause it to explode?

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Ozone smells 'electrical' it's hard to describe. The sound you heard was probably the wasp's body catching fire and its chitinous shell exploding lol. If you had had a serious short, the circuit breaker in your household wiring would have tripped and cut the light. If you have a surge protector as well and THAT didn't trip I think you are fine.

Burnt Bud said:

Ah I have another question, sorry guys. I turned my lights off and I am just wondering if I can go back to 24/0 after having them off for like 6 hours? Or should I stick to 18/6 now that I have left the sprouts in teh dark for 6 hours, I don't want to stress them anymore than need be ahhh my babies! P.s. this is my first grow as well.

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You could go back to 24/0 but there really isn't any advantage to burning your light that extra 6 hours. save the dough. Plants need their sleep too. And they won't care about a 6 hour dark period anyway. Just think of it as a day when there was a really bad rainstorm all day and hardly any sun at all.

cheers.

Burnt Bud said:

400 watt mh, i hope if it has realised fumes they aren't toxic, cause I breathed a shit load of it in

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Is it running off of a magnetic or electronic ballast?

The Medical Grower said:

Is it running off of a magnetic or electronic ballast?

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Electronic, lumatek 400w dim-able.

shnkrmn said:

Ozone smells 'electrical' it's hard to describe. The sound you heard was probably the wasp's body catching fire and its chitinous shell exploding lol. If you had had a serious short, the circuit breaker in your household wiring would have tripped and cut the light. If you have a surge protector as well and THAT didn't trip I think you are fine.




You could go back to 24/0 but there really isn't any advantage to burning your light that extra 6 hours. save the dough. Plants need their sleep too. And they won't care about a 6 hour dark period anyway. Just think of it as a day when there was a really bad rainstorm all day and hardly any sun at all.

cheers.

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Ah thanks for all the help dude I just thoroughly inspected my light and found a dead wasp burnt to it, so just cleaned it off with a bit of water and dried the lamp off. But I want to fully clean the grow box (clean all the dead wasps, about 10, and clean out the live ones so they don't burn themselves on the light again) before turning the light on again and I can't do it tonight :S So my lights are gonna be out for like over 14 hours, but then after I will switch it to 18/6 but I was wondering if this would stress the sprouts into hermie-ing as i will have the light out for basically 20 hours, then going back to 18/6. DAMN YOU WASPS (

Nope, that won't hurt them a bit. One little incident of irregular lighting is insignificant in veg. They can't hermie anyway, because they are sprouts. They have other things to think about. Simple things like roots, leaves. Time for sex later!

bulb tip: when replacing a bulb (like after cleaning dead bugs, lol) always be sure to screw it firmly into the socket. Most HID bulb early failures are a result of insufficient seating causing arcing and heat buildup in the base of the bulb. Fire hazard too.

shnkrmn said:

Nope, that won't hurt them a bit. One little incident of irregular lighting is insignificant in veg. They can't hermie anyway, because they are sprouts. They have other things to think about. Simple things like roots, leaves. Time for sex later!

bulb tip: when replacing a bulb (like after cleaning dead bugs, lol) always be sure to screw it firmly into the socket. Most HID bulb early failures are a result of insufficient seating causing arcing and heat buildup in the base of the bulb. Fire hazard too.

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Yeah man I made sure to screw it in firmly, i didn't manage to get off every little blemish of the bug, seems he left some of his blood but I think it is burnt in cause it was such a small bit.

I managed to clean out most of the tent and also put the bulb back just in time for 18/6 and I think I will keep to it as they seem to have become a lot heathier with the higher humidity/darkness. Hopefully another wasp doesn't fly into the lamp while I am sleeping, bought a fire alarm though just in case *touch wood*.

Thanks for the help mate!

Just in case of emergency every indoor grower should have smoke alarms in there grow room and house, and always keep a fire hydrant handy there's also a fire extinguisher that mounts on ya ceiling above the grow area that will spray if fire touches it and they cover different radiuses depending on size it's called the defender it's really a nice precaution last thing u need is a fire fighter discovering your grow... Good luck

weedsLV said:

Just in case of emergency every indoor grower should have smoke alarms in there grow room and house, and always keep a fire hydrant handy there's also a fire extinguisher that mounts on ya ceiling above the grow area that will spray if fire touches it and they cover different radiuses depending on size it's called the defender it's really a nice precaution last thing u need is a fire fighter discovering your grow... Good luck

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Ah thanks for the advice mate I have heard about those fire extinguishers that go off by themselves as well, planning to get a handheld one, but maybe i'll invest in one of the ceiling ones, can never be too safe

Update on the girls: Doing good, the darkness seems to good for them, they have grown big in the last 24 hours, p.s. if anyone knows how to make photos 'safe' and untraceable then I would really appreciate it if they could tell me how as I want to start a journal here

Thanks guys!

DEF the wasp. The fucker was flappin his wings hard when he was getting seared and I bet thats what caused the noise. I had a BIG wasp trappd between 2 windows( dont know how it flew in there) and the noise it was making sounded like someone was drilling n the distance. Hope this calmed ya down a bit. No fire...Take a toke lol

Stickystickyganja said:

DEF the wasp. The fucker was flappin his wings hard when he was getting seared and I bet thats what caused the noise. I had a BIG wasp trappd between 2 windows( dont know how it flew in there) and the noise it was making sounded like someone was drilling n the distance. Hope this calmed ya down a bit. No fire...Take a toke lol

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Haha mate, I did, definately helped

If this was my grow i would take all the plugs of check everthing electricle,better safe than sorry