Help, MH light issue?

[Slickcg33]

well i just received my new(I think) aqua medic ocean pendant light from marinedepo.com. The reason I say "I think" is because a couple of the boxes looked like they been used before, it didn't come w/ an instruction manual(which I think it supposed to) and one of the hanging sockets looks slightly different then the other. The equipment itself looks bran new, or perhaps returned....

But that's another story... to get to my question:

My question is about the specific light that came with this product. It's the 250w 20k AB double ended bulb. There seemed to be a cloudiness and almost rust/burnt color to the middle of the bulb when i turned it on the first time. Is this normal for hqi lights? Or should it always be clear? This is my first experience w/ MH.

here are pics:

also 2 little pieces of white ceramic came off the light on both ends. will this be a problem?

 

[sw_addicted]

I can help with that, I've had the same lights for about 3yrs now. yes to the burnt middle in 4 of the 6 bulbs that are changed yearly. And if you were lucky enough to only break one of the ceramic pieces out of the 4 ends you did well(this does not effect anything poorly) when you replace the bulbs no doubt this will happen again, mine are all broke. But the lighting system has given me no problems at all.

 

[Slickcg33]

thanks for the reply. that puts me at ease... and i contacted mariedepot about some of the other issues, in which they are handling it!

 

[BigAl07]

They have pretty good Customer Service so I'm confident you'll get positive results on those as well