UV filtering glass for HQI
 

So im thinking about a DIY MH set up... only problem is I dont know what kind of glass to use to filter out the harmful UV.

Any help would be awesome....

To my knowledge all glass filters out UV thats why you can't work on your tan in your car when the windows are up :razz:

There may be something to getting tempered glass vs non tempered though.

don't think it's anything special, mine is just 1/8 plate.

I don't think normal glass does a good job in filtering out UV hence the UV filtered sunglasses etc. I think it does some, but if you want to target it specifically, you may need to get some from a glass shop.

If this is true, then you should look to getting some as prolonged exposure to UV light can damage your eyes causing cataracts, etc..

I know that my hood, when I bought it said it has UV filtering glass.

Most sunglasses are plastic so they have to add the UV filter.

"Low E Glass" is what I believe is suppose to be used. 3mm and usually tempered to prevent cracking from water splashing.

This is why I ask.
http://www.reefland.com/forum/lighti...shielding.html
http://www.aquarium-design.com/reef/uvlighting.html

From hellolightsThere has been tonnnnns of discussion but no one seems to have answers....

Are the shields on the halogen lamps uv protected?

Don't think there's a lot of useful UV from halogens. You can't even use them to grow plants.

For HQI all you want is regular old glass. Probably tempered but it's otherwise it's just ordinary glass aka "clear float".

Not worth the risk to me... I like to watch the tank and my mother had cataract surgery, so don't to experience that... so a "couple of bucks" to spend on UV coated glass isn't too bad. It's probably very low risk as noted, HQIs don't generate a lot of UV, but eye damage is cummulative...

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc.../chem00539.htm

Like I said "Low E" (low-emissivity) glass, it filters the most UV with it's special coating. It's not expensive and all glass shops will have it, if you don't want to spring for the tempering just go up to 5mm and you should be fine.

Otherwise use SE bulbs.

+1 .. this isn't rocket science ... no need to make it harder than it has to be. If you really don't trust the glass then don't use DE lamps. Done and done.

There is a couple mistakes here.

First I'm pretty sure standard "Low E" is designed to block infrared not UV, I'm not sure it will block UV at all but it probably does. However I'm thinking trapping the infrared a mh bulb puts out in the pendant might not be a good thing for your bulb life.

Standard plate glass will block > 95% of UVB which is why you won't tan behind glass windows. It won't block hardly any UVA though which has been shown to have nasty effects on connective tissue. There does exist a type of glass that has a mixture of SO2 on Ti02 on it that will block UVA as well as UVB, it is used in cars sometimes and you can probably find it somewhere. So given that everyone assumes we need to rush out and buy glass that blocks UVA and UVB to cover our DE bulbs so they're safe. This is Wrong.

A common mistake is to assume that the glass envelope on a SE bulb filters out all the UV produced by the the bulb, It doesn't. If you look at the link to Dana Riddle's article posted by scuglass you will see that they were measuring the UVA and UVB output of SE bulbs. There are plenty of people here using SE bulbs without additional shielding in addition to the outer envelope to good effect so what gives? The answer is that we are not necessarily concerned with blocking all of the UV that comes off of a DE bulb, only the wavelengths that are especially dangerous. These wavelengths are primarily the shorter UVC wavelengths and probably a good portion of the UVB as well, regular float glass will do this. In fact a DE bulb behind float glass probably puts out less UVB than a SE bulb.

The cheapest way to get a chunk of tempered 5mm glass for your pendant is probably to go buy an outdoor halogen fixture at Home Depot or something and just use the glass. Halogen bulbs require the same shielding as DE mh bulbs do.