High Tide Aquatics

my metal halide bulbs exploded last night :(

How could this happen? Don't you have a protective glass between the bulb and the tank?
Could it be that fish splashed water on it?
 
no protect glass on my luminarc,first time it happen since i been in reefing.could be the flow of my tunze or fishes,going to lower my tunze a couple inches to prevent the little splash.hopefully that solve the problem.


lapsan
 
orientalexpress said:
lucky i was home,i have all this broking glasses all over the tank.hopefully no damage is done to my tank.so far so good.:(




lapsan
Click to expand...

How far from the water is your bulb?
Do you think water splashed on it?
 
damn.. good thing your were home when it happened. i heard horror stories about bulbs blowing up and killing a all the corals. hope it doesnt happened again.
 
Only real way it can kill a tank IMO/IME is if it's a DE and only the shield breaks so UV spills out. I've had just about every type of bulb break over my tanks with no effects what so ever :)
 
the bulbs is about 12 inches above the water,i think the splash did it,i wipe my bulb at least once or twice a month since i have alot salt residue on it.


lapsan
 
GreshamH said:
Only real way it can kill a tank IMO/IME is if it's a DE and only the shield breaks so UV spills out. I've had just about every type of bulb break over my tanks with no effects what so ever :)
Click to expand...

This happened to Roy on a SE bulb and lost all the corals under it. The external glass broke, but halide remained ON. But on Roys case, I believe the bulb was broken for a few hours before he found it. Lap was lucky enough to be home at the time of accident, and was able to turn off his ballasts. Otherwise the same thing could have happened.
 
broke and exploded are very different things though :) It's extremely unusual for an SE to continue to work with out the outer glass, but not uncommon at all for DE>
 
But isn't that what happened to Lap and Roy? The outer glass broke and the inner bulb remained On. Both didn't realized what happened until they found broken glass inside the tank. How would you define broke vs exploded, also how would anyone know the difference if no one was there to know exactly what happened? :)
 
Where did Lap state is bulb was still on after it exploded?

Exploded is what happened to Lap... have no idea what happened to Roy (link?)

IMO/IME
broke is cracked but still on the mogul or largely intact
exploded is just that, shattered and not left on the mogul
 
sorry didn't explain better,the glass did explode off the bulb and it light is still on and i unplug the ballast when i see glass all over my corals.all the corals have no damage tho.


lapsan
 
Geez lapsan. :exmark: Sounds like a cracked bulb to me. In explosions I wanna see smoke, sparks and possibly even flames. :bigsmile: :D
I guess you were lucky that you were there.
 
Exploded or broke it still sucks. I had a hood break on me dumping 8x 55w PC smashed to pieces into my 54g corner tank. Found glass in that tank until I took it down.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top