survived shattered halide

[Witfull]

Thanks to Teri for the soothing words and to Mojo and Boomer for their advice and guidance to get through this...
...the story is...i got a call at work saying my lights exploded. they said it sounded like 2 beer mugs being smashed together..well i freaked,,but i had to wait till i got home. i got home and i saw that both the outer and inner envelopes had ruptured. there was a appx 1" hole in the outer glass and half the inner glass was gone. inside there was alot of glass shards and dust. i think i got lucky that it didnt burst more. well a good vacuuming and alot of carbon filtering with my Vortex Diatom Filter.

now im forced to buy my new lighting, i just bought 2-15K 250 MH bulbs from joe@inreef. now im getting a dual 250 retro ballast and sockets from Aquariumlights. now to search for relectors.

[NaH2O]

Wow! Karma for the stress. Now I know who I'll need to call in case this ever happens to me....RL, Mojo, and Boomer. j/k, Wit

[wooddood]

sorry to hear that dave,sounds like it could have been worse.but hey on the bright side your gettin new lights lol.

[Gina]

Sorry to hear about that. I'm surprised you waited till you got off work. I would have been nuts hanging out at work. Just curious, wasn't there a chance of fire after that happened?
Karma for you!

[reefrunner]

Sorry about that, do you know what caused the explosion? I am assuming a splash from fish.

[Curtswearing]

I think you broke it on purpose so you could upgrade your lights.

j/k Wit!!!

[Scooterman]

Questions?
1. What caused it to explode?
2. Did the broken bulb & pieces fall into your water?
3. Wouldn't the chemicals internal to the bulb poison your tank? I'm guessing why you filtered but that was way later.
I'm just curious on the cause, one to try and prevent this from happing one day, also what effects of a MH bulb broken will do to your tank & how long do you have before you kill off everything if so?

Whata scare Wit, glad everything else is ok!

[brian_e]

Sorry about the bulbs u are luck it wasnt just the outer glass that broke .When my outer glass broke the bulb stayed lit and cooked a few corals and stressed the rest karma to u

[Witfull]

scooter
1 what caused it...dont know.. it was the top of the bulb that blew so maybe splash but sceptical.
2 yes, several pieces fell into the tankbut alot seemd to be captured within the bulb
3 yes its possible that the metals inside could harm the tank due to heavy metals- Mercury, Scandium, Thorium and Argon gas. but the advice i got from both boomer and mojo was that these are small traces and that a good vacuuming and carbon should help. thats the reason for my diatom filter, cleaning in an ultra fine level.everything looks fine, like nothing happened,,,just that they are going through light withdrawl. TG i still have 260 wts of PC and 80wts of actinic....that should hold them for a week till the new fixture gets here.

Gina, my wife was home and in a panic she pulled all the light plugs (easily identified by the timers) so that cured any risk from that. yes i was going nuts at work, the call came at 3pm and i got out at 345pm, i just cannot run out of work, yes i love my tank but life as a law enforcement officer does take precidence over some things.

Dave...haha hahaha...bright side--new lights,,,,,hahahaha

curt, you found me out, you new i wanted new lights,,,just needed an excuse

Nikki, calll me if you need advice on going barebottom....LOLOL

[Scooterman]

Good information thanks!
Also glad to know you wouldn't leave your job fot your reef, even though difficult, I'd rather have help when needed than have my reef.

[Pro_builder]

Wit, sorry to hear about the bulb explosion.
Hope that everything turns out ok for ya.
As far as reflectors, I think that Hellolights.com is still having a sale on there parabolic reflectors.
Check here: Parabolic Reflectors 29.95 each

[Witfull]

thanks troy,,,but i just need the reflectors,,,i have the mogals

[NaH2O]

Hmmm....Wit, I think I can handle bare bottom....just don't add sand. However, if you are interested I could use your help when I get my live rock....you can help me set up the bare bottom.

[Montanareefer]

Hey Wit! Glad everything turned out ok! What would we do without a forum like Reef Sanctuary? Great people here can be a real comfort in time of need!

[NaH2O]

Originally posted by Witfull

curt, you found me out, you knew i wanted new lights,,,just needed an excuse

I really want to know how long it took you to train your fish to splash...and for them to get the spash on the topside of the bulb.... I'm sure I'll want to upgrade my lights someday, so this information will come in handy.