Warning: Coralife Aqualight Advanced Hang-On 150w HQI

[brizzo]

Ok, after about 5 weeks of pulling my hair our and much frustration I have finally figured out what was wrong with my tank.

This thread is to let others know of the problem with the Coralife fixture.

They use their own generic bulb, that apparently is made of glass and filters UV.

If you replace this bulb with any other DE HQI bulb, you WILL burn and kill everything in your tank, as other bulbs are made of quartz and have no protection against UV.

The stock bulb that came with the fixture, ended up exploding/breaking in my fixture. I replaced it with a Geissman 14.1k bulb, and had trouble ever since. The obvious signs were there of UV burning, but I did not know them at the time :(

All my problems were solved when I went and had a piece of glass cut to cover my tank. Within days everything was happy, healing, and even growing!! I also ordered a piece of tempered glass to replace the metal grill the fixture currently has. I then plan to install new fans on both ends of the fixture.

I hope this is helpful for others in the future.

[Aquattro]

From their ad, the unit is supposed to come with a glass lens cover


Product Information:
150 watt 14,000K double-ended HQI metal halide lamp ; External HQI metal halide ballast with on/off switch, 12-foot lamp cord and 6-foot power cord ; Three points of articulation for multiple lighting positions
Sleek anodized black-aluminum housing with ventilation grill; Highly-polished reflector ;Built-in cooling fan ; Glass HQI lens cover ; Heavy-duty mounting bracket; Multiple applications

[christyf5]

Mine had a small glass half tube that covered the bulb. It pretty much fit in flush with the bulb but not touching it (probly about 2cm from it). Perhaps that shattered with the bulb when it exploded and you didn't notice it?

[brizzo]

The glass "uv guard" is/was still in place. On some other forums, users had made contact with coralife and they called it a splash guard only. Either way glass does filter uv, but it only covers half the bulb.

christyf5 what kind of bulbs did you use ?

[Drock169]

not trying to start an arguement here, but usually when you replace a bulb if you can, raise the fixture up to prevent burning, or reduce the time the metal halide is on and gradually increase. When you change bulbs the new bulbs are often more intense than the old ones

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

The Geisemann bulb probably had twice the PAR of the crappy Coralife bulbs.

[Chaloupa]

Weird...I replaced my stock 150w HQI DE with a Geismann 13000k and had no trouble at all, and that was after the first bulb was well past it's prime!

[christyf5]

The glass "uv guard" is/was still in place. On some other forums, users had made contact with coralife and they called it a splash guard only. Either way glass does filter uv, but it only covers half the bulb.

christyf5 what kind of bulbs did you use ?

I had the bulb it came with but it was too much light for my small nano. I ended up buying a cheap 20K bulb from ebay which worked fine for awhile (nice color too) but then I discovered I needed a chiller for the tank when it got warmer out. Eventually I went back to the PC fixture I had originally bought for the tank and sold the coralife unit.

[brizzo]

When I switched bulbs I made sure to cover my tank with aluminum screen, 12 layers, just to make sure everything was happy; but that didn't help at all. It probably slowed the cooking....

Here are links of other people having the same trouble, I just wish I found these earlier:

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~SearchStr~~action~view~idProduct~ES536 01~idCategory~FILTFIMHPDDE~category~Coralife_Aqual ight_Advanced_Tank_Mount__1__150_W_14_000K_HQI_Sal twater_Aquarium_Supplies_Lighting_Fixtures_Metal_H alide_Pendants_Double_Ended_MH&vendor%3D.html
See 2 posts on customer reviews

http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=36253
I seem to be in the exact boat as this guy

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=53462&st=120
See post #137, and lots more before that .. big thread

All I can say is after placing a sheet of 1/8" glass over my tank, everything has sprung back to life (I still have screen over the tank so the intensity is lowered and things may heal, and they are :D)

[nanoreefer]

hey nazerine i dont mean to go off topic but do you have your NC DX drilled or run a chiller on it? i have the same tank and iam planning on MH iam just scared about cooking the tank with the heat.

[OCDP]

I had the bulb it came with but it was too much light for my small nano. I ended up buying a cheap 20K bulb from ebay which worked fine for awhile (nice color too) but then I discovered I needed a chiller for the tank when it got warmer out. Eventually I went back to the PC fixture I had originally bought for the tank and sold the coralife unit.

Hey Christy, just curious.. when you switched to another bulb, did you notice any UV burning?? Just curious... seems like some do run into problems with bulbs other than Coralife, and other's don't ??

The last thing I need is UV spilling into my tank and my living room ahah.

[christyf5]

No I don't recall having any issues with the bulb at all. The tank was actually happier with the 20K than the 14K bulb it came with and no problems with excess UV leakage. The whole setup is fairly well protected as I do believe there was both a glass shield for the bulb as well as a piece of flat glass to protect the whole reflector and bulb/shield combo.