lighting - help ID what i bought? *pics*

i bought a used aquarium setup that came with a DIY hood+light. i'm not familiar with lighting setups so i don't know what i have. plus there is some damage on one of the fittings. please help me identify the setup and let me know what i need to get it working again.

this is the lighting fixture (bottom left fitting is damaged):


this is the ballast:




closeup of damaged part:







the lights that you see installed are 36" coralife 95watt actinic VHO T12.
i intend to use this on a 40 gallon low-tech low-light FW setup so i know i need new light bulbs. i'm pretty sure i won't need all four lights. probably only 1 or 2.

so what do you think? can i reuse this setup? any ideas on what could cause that one fixture to melt like that? the other fixtures all appear to be fine. i'm thinking of just removing the melted piece + ballast and relocating the 2 sets of good fittings to the center.

thanks for the replies.

jmhart said:

I think you're plan will work fine. Looking at it, it's a good score. If I were you, I'd go ahead and plan on fixing that last ballast and then you're ready in case you ever want to go high tech.

Click to expand...

Mgamer20o0 said:

heat does that. might want to install a fan too. also actinic bulbs need to be replaced.

Click to expand...

i'm throwing out both of the bulbs that you see in the pic (going with 2x20watt or 1x40 watt). so you guys don't think there is any issues with wiring and parts that caused that one part to melt? if it's just heat from the bulb, i wonder why the others aren't melted... although the two bulbs i have are turning black on the ends so maybe they are close to melting too.

i am assuming that lower wattage bulbs will cause less heat so i can avoid the melting problem? i don't want to just rely on a fan (i'll look into installing something though just as an added measure).

i did some googling and found these links:

http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-26399.html
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=250465&perpage=25&pagenumber=1
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=655081

apparently this problem is somewhat rare, but still quite possible as my example showed (and apparently i should have posted this in the saltwater section since reefkeepers commonly use this kind of setup). seems a number of things can cause it... improper installation of the endcap might be the cause of my meltdown... reading that stuff just made me more paranoid. i'm thinking about just re-doing the lighting to something safer. having VHOs are way overkill for me anyway.