tesla virgin no more ! but need help

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "steven hyman" <steve502-at-bellsouth-dot-net> 

I have been building my first coil (Researched this lists archives for over 
a month ,along with all the websites Thanks), and had first sparks
on Saturday  WOW!!!, about  15 inches, but having some problems, I cannot 
figure out, and need some expert advise

    Spark gap , static type with 6 ,1" diameter x2" long copper pipes laid 
out flat, gap spacing about 1mm  with fan
.  MMC with 2 strings 12 each string(24total of 1600kv .15uf poly's.Total 
value .025 uf ??? ( can someone check this)
     I am presently powering this coil with 15/30 NST

first light was great, ran the coil 10-15 short runs 12-24 inch 
sparks.   Then the  spark gap would only fire for about a second and stop, 
after inspecting the MMC realized I had burned 2 caps up ( big holes in two 
caps together in series), I replaced these caps, and added 3 more per 
string( now qty 15- .15uf 1600kv each per string x 2 strings)) but same 
problem, after some evals, my present  situation remains the same , if I 
remove the parallel connection between the 2 strings of 15 caps, and use 
each string alone, the gap fires ( but no sparks from top load( I can get 
spark from topload with breakout), but if I reconnect the 2 strings of caps 
, same problem, gap only fires for about a second or two, and nothing, I 
have tried the coil using a smaller NST (9/30 )   and the coil works well 
all components working with about 15" sparks.

4" secondary 1050 turns ,24awg, 21.5 " coil length
12 turn primary 1/4 od, 1/4 spacing( tuned at about 7 turns)

I suspect the MMC  configuration, but cannot figure this out !! I thought 
15 x1600kv caps would suffice for a 15/30 nst (15 x 1600=24kv
any help would be greatly appreciated

Steve