…well, the UV filter did. It’s a long UV bulb that fits in a slot in the skimmer, and I’d changed the bulb a week ago and had it running.
We’ve had a lot of algae, which means cleaning the filter every 3 hours or so, so we’d left the skimmer lid off. That’s one lucky break. Lucky break #2, we happened to be working right at pondside just 10 feet away, planting some items, when Jane smelled smoke and investigated. If we hadn’t been right there, we’d have had an electrical fire possibly spreading into the formed-plastic of the skimmer itself, and doing further damage, plus possibly blowing out the pump (not inexpensive!) and maybe killing the fish by electric shock. We have a gfi, but it didn’t trip: there’s a separate ballast involved on that light, and the disaster hadn’t gotten to it, yet.
So for having a piece of bad luck, we were darned lucky on this one!
I’ve put in a call to pondliner.com to see what can be done with the mess we’ve got. We need that uv filter.
Goodness! That sounds like a close call. Remind me to make sure you are never on the same plane as me though.
Any cogent comment aside, “we have a gfi…” 😮 Ground Fault Interrupt, cup of gfi…. Wow. No wonder the hani are so zippy. :p Yes, my brain’s a bit odd today. (*Just* today?) 😉
Yikes, electrical fire hazard and plastics and all… scary plot complication aboard ship or station.
Well, and my number one reason for using pondliner.com for all pond purchases of a mailorder nature: they’re replacing our entire unit, and sending it to us. Apparently it was a ‘known issue’ for a ‘few’ Savio UV units, which Savio has now fixed; and we got it before it did damage to the pond—so pondliner.com asked for pix, which we sent, then what they could do to make it right.
I said, “Uh, ideally a new unit,” and they said, “Would 2 days be ok?”
I love this company.
Yikes! Sounds like pondliner.com is excellent to work with, I’ll have to keep that in mind for the future.
BlueCatShip, I had the same “huh?” moment with “have a gfi”! Wondered if maybe you POURED it on the flaming filter 😀
My thought exactly!
But perhaps without tofi, as it seems haste was of some importance 😉
I’m glad you caught it before it started shorting into the pond *insert Homer Simpson/fishing/bug zapper moment here* Pondliner.com doesn’t work out of Cleveland, do they? I was actually around for when the Cuyahoga River caught fire… twice.
Maybe investigating why the gfi DIDN’T trip is a worthwhile activity.
p.s. Nevermind; I see you’ve already settled that to your satisfaction.
Lol—they’re based in good ol’ Shawnee, Oklahoma. They offer koi for sale, and I’ve got the fond notion they may have gotten the original Ari and Maddy, from our ‘office’ pond in Oklahoma City (a 3×3 hole in the office flooring)— we gave them away through a fish store that served most of OKC, and this store said they went to a place ‘with big ponds.’ So we sorta hope they found this place. They’re a good operation.
Aw, darn, Busifer beat me to the joke. But maybe gfi is supposed to have a smoky aftertaste?