Broken MH bulb

[PoukieBear]

I bought a new light fisture last night, and in the process of putting it all together, my Boufriend broke one of the 250 watt MH bulbs. ( I swear the guy is like a bull in a china shop! :mad2: )

Anyhow, only the outside glass casing is broken, the inside part is fine. It burns fine, but is this safe??

 

[Horace]

ABSOLUTLY NOT. Do not run the bulb w/out the glass on it, even a cracked one can cause coral death.

 

[PoukieBear]

How can it cause coral death??

(i don't have any corals right now.)

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

The outer sleeve is a UV gaurd, without it, your light will let off a lot of uv rays, which are damaging, to all forms of life.

I had a bulb break, and it killed several corals.

 

[PoukieBear]

Great, thanks for the info. The light is now off, and I'm replacing the bulb tonight.

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

No prob.

If you look at the inner part of the bulb, it looks a lot like a de bulb. Se bulbs, are de's with a built in sleeve, this is why the de bulbs must always have a glass cover, for uv filtering.

SOunds like you need to keep that boyfriend away from the tank!

 

[Entropy]

Running a SE bulb without the outside glass is very similar to running a DE bulb without a UV shield which is dangerous to everything in the tank and anything the light spills onto. Don't do it! (and give monkeys a second chance. )

 

[PoukieBear]

My bf is usually pretty good withthe tank. He takes care of all the technical stuff that I don't understand. I do all the fun stuff like research of fish and corals and such.

What's an SE bulb and a De bulb??




(Nope, no way, Monkeys scare the crapola out of me. Have you ever had a monkey throw poo at you!??! AAH!!)

 

[dc_909]

Single end and Double end

 

[PoukieBear]

SEE?? This is why he takes care of the technical stuff. I still don't know what that means...

 

[Entropy]

Single ended bulbs have one end (like a standard light bulb you screw in). Double ended have two ends and go in different type of fixture.

 

[Entropy]

SE:

DE:

(pics from Marine Depot)

 

[PoukieBear]

Ahhh...now it makes sence. The one that broke last night was a DE.

 

[Horace]

And it still fired?????? I automatically assumed it was an SE we were talking about (so did everyone else). Are you sure you have a DE bulb?????

 

[PoukieBear]

Yup, totaly possitive I have a DE. Is it still bad to use it while it's broken??

 

[PoukieBear]

This is what I have

...only the higher model with the 250 watts bulbs.