have to vent

[cgj]

Last week on thursday morning, my sunpod's MH bulb which was roughly 2 months old burned out. I was a bit taken back by it working for roughly a year less than it was supposed to... so I quickly went online and ordered a replacement. There I ordered another 250W, HQI 14000K bulb, but instead of a current usa bulb, I ordered a USHIO which is a much better brand.
A week passed. My clam and other corals appear fine, but my hammer coral is now about 1/4 dead and this irritates me greatly. The bulb finally came in. I tried to press it inm but it seemed to sit loosely and didnt want to sit tightly, so I applied increasing amounts of pressure and even used needle nosed pliers to clamp the electrode so that it would fit... in the end the electrode recievers that supply power to the bulb ended up gettign bent, and the new bulb is also broken now. Im truly ready to flip out right now as I have no choice but to run to an LFS that maybe will have a bulb in stock and pay half a months salary for, or let my tank die off completely as ordering a bulb on the weekend will require more time.
This is the stupidest frikkin hobby ever and the lighting portion is far and wide the most frustrating part of it altogether. If I would have realized the bullspit and money this would have cost a year ago I never ever would have even bothered.
Sorry to rant, but I coudl tear a phoen book in half with rage right now.
jay

 

[bessycerka]

I feel for you, vent more if necessary.This sort of a thing happened to me with a brand new Fluval filter, the hose had a kink from shipping, collapsed, the water stopped moving, and so did my favorite 3 year old trigger while I was at work. Another time ( 1987) my first Fluval burned out and......well, I left the hobby for ten years. I won't buy those filters anymore, and ALWAYS have 3 forms of water movement in every tank now.

 

[matt b]

couldent u see if ur lfs will take ur corals until u can get a new bulb???

 

[nycbob]

thats why having backup light is so important. i always hv an extra bulbs or an temporary light fixture around in case things break. sorry for ur lost.

 

[flricordia]

Welcome to the wonderful hobby of reefkeeping.
Yes, you definatly have to be cut out for reef keeping. I have seen many jump into it with both feet and within 6 months to a year find they are much happier after they get rid of their set-up.
Maybe try a planted freshwater set-up. It can be just as beautiful a display with much less the cost. Or maybe an African cichlid tank? If I weren't so hooked on reef tanks I would probably be breeding eartheaters or apistogramma in a nano tank with plants, or maybe even discus. The aquarium hobby extends to many different biotypes and one of the most difficult, expensive and time consuming is the closed reef.
But seriously, I don't think there is a one of us that hasn't thrown our hard-earned cash away buying on impulse or giving it for products that just downright s@</.
Sunpod though is a good quality lighting system and you should have contacted Current and told them what had happened and I am sure they woudl have tried to make it right.
And if you doi decide to stay in the hobby learn form this and always kkep back-ups on hand, especially pupms, lights and salt mix.

 

[bessycerka]

If I was at the house in NH, I'd loan you one of my pendants, but you can get a cheap T5 strip from LFS for about $60 to keep as a spare, and use it till your MH bulb comes in.

 

[cgj]

Incredibly, my uncle has some experience as an electrician. he managed to ultra-glue the ceramic end-pieces back onto the bulb and reattach the electrode. Allowed it to dry for a few hours and we now have a working MH fixture.
I've already ordered 2 additional HQI bulbs to have on the ready.
What a total pain in the @$$ but I cant believe this worked out. My clam, xenia, hammer etc. are all out and looking to be undergoing recovery.
Will the hammer regrow? id say it only lost about 1/4 to 1/3 of its fleshyness... the remaining 2/3 are looking normal.

 

[cgj]

Originally Posted by bessycerka
I feel for you, vent more if necessary.This sort of a thing happened to me with a brand new Fluval filter, the hose had a kink from shipping, collapsed, the water stopped moving, and so did my favorite 3 year old trigger while I was at work. Another time ( 1987) my first Fluval burned out and......well, I left the hobby for ten years. I won't buy those filters anymore, and ALWAYS have 3 forms of water movement in every tank now.
A trigger will die if the tank loses water movement, even only momentarily?

 

[wattsupdoc]

Wait a minute

... He super glueD(or something). The bulb back together???? Was it broken any where that was in the sealed area of the bulb?? The outside portion of the bulb protects everything outside of it from escaping radiation. Any crack or possible leak from this lamp will surely kill everything in the tank. How long of exposure time it will take, I cant say. But prolonged exposure to this, can be detrimental. Possibly as little as several minutes, or as long as days. But if it can leak, it will. The bulb may be lighting, even though it's not sealed.

 

[bessycerka]

triggers are generally EXTREMELY resilient, and can handle changes in salinity, less than perfect water conditions, they can be used to cycle a tank, even more resilient than damsels ( my exp anyway ) With all saltwater fish, you can buy them in a plastic bag and if there is oxygen put in the bag ( like when buying online, and they are shipped Fed Ex next day delivery ) they will survive for 24- 48 hours usually. The good shippers use less water and more oxygen. The pet shops that only put air in the bag, you have an hour or so before the fish stresses. If your power goes out, you better have at least a battery operated air pump/airstone set up ready because after a short span of time, without the water movement, the fish will perish. The charter fishing boats and such have live wells on the boat to keep the bait fish alive. These are usually an ice cooler type of container with a power head that runs on DC as there is no wall outlet available on a boat. Bottom line is... without water movement of some sort, be it an air stone or a water pump, the SALTWATER fish will die within hours ( unless you do a water change every hour and that is not practical ) It is not the same as with freshwater fish

 

[bessycerka]

triggers are generally EXTREMELY resilient, and can handle changes in salinity, less than perfect water conditions, they can be used to cycle a tank, even more resilient than damsels ( my exp anyway ) With all saltwater fish, you can buy them in a plastic bag and if there is oxygen put in the bag ( like when buying online, and they are shipped Fed Ex next day delivery ) they will survive for 24- 48 hours usually. The good shippers use less water and more oxygen. The pet shops that only put air in the bag, you have an hour or so before the fish stresses. If your power goes out, you better have at least a battery operated air pump/airstone set up ready because after a short span of time, without the water movement, the fish will perish. The charter fishing boats and such have live wells on the boat to keep the bait fish alive. These are usually an ice cooler type of container with a power head that runs on DC as there is no wall outlet available on a boat. Bottom line is... without water movement of some sort, be it an air stone or a water pump, the SALTWATER fish will die within hours ( unless you do a water change every hour and that is not practical ) It is not the same as with freshwater fish.

 

[cgj]

Originally Posted by wattsupdoc
Wait a minute

... He super glueD(or something). The bulb back together???? Was it broken any where that was in the sealed area of the bulb?? The outside portion of the bulb protects everything outside of it from escaping radiation. Any crack or possible leak from this lamp will surely kill everything in the tank. How long of exposure time it will take, I cant say. But prolonged exposure to this, can be detrimental. Possibly as little as several minutes, or as long as days. But if it can leak, it will. The bulb may be lighting, even though it's not sealed.
No, the bulb itself is not broken. On any HQI type mteal halide bulb there are two ceramic endpieces that are used as hardpoints, 1 to protect the electrodes that plug into the fixture, and 2 to provide a "handle" for pressing into the socket or for pulling to lift the bulb out. Without these handles, the electrodes that plug into the fixtures will wobble as their just a metal wire without stability.
What he did is he glued the ceramic pieces (hardpoints) back together to stabilize the wire/electrode sticking out of the unbroken, fully sealed bulb.

 

[b bauer]

Originally Posted by wattsupdoc
Wait a minute

... He super glueD(or something). The bulb back together???? Was it broken any where that was in the sealed area of the bulb?? The outside portion of the bulb protects everything outside of it from escaping radiation. Any crack or possible leak from this lamp will surely kill everything in the tank. How long of exposure time it will take, I cant say. But prolonged exposure to this, can be detrimental. Possibly as little as several minutes, or as long as days. But if it can leak, it will. The bulb may be lighting, even though it's not sealed.
if the tube was broken it wont work so no radiation also hqi fixture need a special glass lens because the lamps are not coated like other metal halide lamps