Metal Halide Bulb

[ErinCahir]

So I always look through past threads to see if I can find an answer before I post and no such luck.
I would also like to preface this with I am EXTREMELY electronically challenged... so please please give me a dumbed-down explanation.
We have a fixture we got about a month ago that has been great up until two days ago. One of the halide bulbs sometimes doesn't come on. It'll start warming up and then turn off. Sometimes it comes on a few hours later, sometimes it doesn't come on at all. When it doesn't come on (and it's still plugged in, because I have 2 bulbs) it makes a weird like rat-a-tat sound. Kind of like a snare drum...
Thoughts?

 

[BL1]

I'm assuming you have one ballast for each bulb? If so, try switching the ballasts. If the bulb works after that and the other bulb starts doing the same thing then you know it's an issue with the ballast and it may need to be replaced.

 

[ErinCahir]

Thanks. I'll have the husband try that when he gets home... the thing is too damn heavy and high for me to get it off the top of the tank by myself.

 

[ErinCahir]

So this morning neither of them are coming on. We didn't have time to do the ballast switch last night.
So now my question is... how long will everything be okay for in my tank without the MH?
The fish I know will be fine. We have mushrooms, a frogspawn, zoas and a candy cane.

 

[BL1]

Do you have any other kind of lighting in the tank?

 

[d2mini]

People routinely do total tank blackouts for 4 days at a time with no adverse effect on corals or fish. Beyond that, I'm not sure how much longer you can go. I'm right there with you, since my MH bulb stopped firing a few days ago. New one coming in today, hopefully it works! Otherwise I'm screwed. :shock: But i do have 4 t5's as well, just that all of them are blue at the moment.

 

[ErinCahir]

I do have 4 x 54 T5 actinic... and moonlights. But I don't know how much a difference the moonlights make.
Everything seems to be all right for now and opening up for the day.
We got the light about a month ago and I emailed the guy that sent it to us. It was kind of a gamble because it's not a "name brand" light. It arrived with some of the grating on top buckled it and when I emailed him about that he was pretty quick to try to help us out. We'll see if the same thing happens now that it's not an aesthetic problem anymore.

And I saw your post, Dennis. I thought maybe we were having the same problem. I wish mine was just the bulb. I could go out and buy a new one instead of waiting for this guy to email me back. He was worried about a "5 star ebay rating". I insinuated that the fish forums will not take kindly to people who sell shoddy equipment. I mean, shame on me for buying it, I guess. But still.

 

[BL1]

You should be ok running with just the t5s for a little while. I've been running a semi-"blackout" on my tank with only the T5s coming on for about 2 weeks now without any negative affects on my corals.