Fluval Fresh & Plant 2.0 condensation normal?

[Akmaliano]

Hi,
Can someone please advise if condensation/water drops inside my Fluval Fresh & Plant 2.0 a sign of a fault?
I bought the lights in Dec'17. They are 59W & used with my Roma 240.
Being used normally, 7 hrs a day, never been dropped into the water.

Many thanks

 

[MattW]

Hi there,

The Fluval fresh & plant 2.0 are designed to be rated to IP67, therefore reasonably there should be no condensation within the light unit itself. There was an issue with the generation 1 models where water was able to ingress the unit at a point near the touch button, it is possible your unit is one of these or it could simply be a gasket failure.

Does the water look like it is in between two pieces of glass or does it look to be touching the actual board of LEDs?

 

[Akmaliano]

Hi there,

The Fluval fresh & plant 2.0 are designed to be rated to IP67, therefore reasonably there should be no condensation within the light unit itself. There was an issue with the generation 1 models where water was able to ingress the unit at a point near the touch button, it is possible your unit is one of these or it could simply be a gasket failure.

Does the water look like it is in between two pieces of glass or does it look to be touching the actual board of LEDs?

Thanks Matt. I'll check again tonight when I get home. I've also emailed the shop (complete aquatics) and they replied pretty quickly asking for some pics, so I'll send them some tonight. Let's see what they say.

 

[MattW]

Thanks Matt. I'll check again tonight when I get home. I've also emailed the shop (complete aquatics) and they replied pretty quickly asking for some pics, so I'll send them some tonight. Let's see what they say.

Hi there,

Good to hear they're giving you good service, if the water has ingress into the unit itself it definitely is cause for concern, the LED board does have an epoxy moisture barrier over it like many LED lights however if it is a generation 1 unit then it is likely that this moisture can damage the controller board - your light will be stuck on the setting it was left on as the button will fail. In that case I recommend getting the unit replaced, most shops are aware of the fault with the first generation so tend to do it without questions asked.

 

[Akmaliano]

I have indeed had some difficulties operating the touch button lately (it would not respond) and the light seemed to have dimmed itself once to a lower setting. At the time I hadn't realised that there was condensation. How I spotted it is when I noticed that the plants weren't growing as fast as previous couple of months (despite EI + CO2 + easycarbo + 7hrs photoperiod) and the light didn't look to me as bright in the max setting so I turned it over to check and spotted the condensation. Now I'm not objectively sure if it's the condensation that affected the brightness, or the unit itself developed a fault, but I was definitely surprised to see the condensation.

Thanks again for the advice. I'll get the pics to CA tonight and hopefully they replace it asap.

 

[Akmaliano]

Just to update on this. I sent a few pictures of the faulty lighting unit to Complete Aquatics (CA). You can see in the attached pic how soaked it was inside. No idea how Fluval can claim IPwhatever watertproofness but I hope I just had an odd faulty item. Anyways, CA immediately arranged for it to be picked up by DPD. As I didn't want to be left without lights for the few days between the pick-up of the faulty unit and arrival of a replacement, I asked if the replacement can be delivered at the same time as the pick-up and they were happy to do that for a holding deposit (to make sure my claim was genuine). I paid the deposit and they delivered and picked-up at the same time. It was seamless. Overall, I've had a great experience from them. Now I hope that the replacement will not develop any faults!