Broken Hamilton Halides

stephanied

stephanied

Member
We have two Hamilton 250W 14K metal halide bulbs, and today we noticed our frilly mushroom was dying and we had a brown bloom on one side of the tank. We opened the canopy and noticed that the bulb on the right, had completely busted in two, and the left bulb was cracked. We run them for 6 hours a day, and they are elevated about 10 inches from the water.
Has anyone ever had this happen before?
Here's a photo of the one on the right side.
 
scsinet

scsinet

Active Member
This can happen, and the bulb will continue to operate.
In an single ended bulb, the outer envelope is merely for protection and UV filtering. THe inner bulb is what contains the gasses, so the bulb can operate broken like this.
However, the outer envelope is what provides the UV filtering, so with it broken, your livestock is subjected to intense amounts of UV. Your coral damage may very well be UV burn. Replace the bulb immediately.
 
stephanied

stephanied

Member
Thanks for the info. We pulled the bulbs out right after we discovered it. It's a mystery to us how this happened.
 
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