Ballast

I have an 36" Oceanic light with seperate ballast and this thing gets freeeeeeeeeeeeeaking hot. After it's on for a bit, you can hold it for maybe two seconds before it will seriously burn you. Is there something wrong with it? I was thinking about just putting it on some large pebble gravel. That way there's plenty of ventilation and I doubt it could melt rocks Thanks for any comments.