TANK CRASH: MH Exploded?!

Gripenfelter · #1 02-08-2012, 06:18 PM

This happened to another board member on a local forum. A dragon wrasse jumped out of his tank and smashed his MH bulb. The chemicals in the bulb are volatile and extremely poisonous.

Metal Halide bulbs use rare earth salts along with argon and mercury vapour. The metals and vapours are poison.

Your best bet to ensure the survival of your fish and coral would be to do HUGE water changes.

I always have a quarantine tank running as a back up filled with water from the DT. If possible, transfer everything to a friend's tank ro a quarantine tank until you clean out the tank completely. The metal and poison will not decay and will stay in the water for a very long time.

GMGQ · #2 02-08-2012, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lastlight

You can shield your SE bulbs if your reflector allows for it. I should as well but didn't want to lose PAR or buy the shields. Good luck and sorry to hear.

No, it's the old style with a mogul at the base, and above the bulb is a wide chrome reflector. No housing around it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gripenfelter

This happened to another board member on a local forum. A dragon wrasse jumped out of his tank and smashed his MH bulb. The chemicals in the bulb are volatile and extremely poisonous.

Metal Halide bulbs use rare earth salts along with argon and mercury vapour. The metals and vapours are poison.

Your best bet to ensure the survival of your fish and coral would be to do HUGE water changes.

I always have a quarantine tank running as a back up filled with water from the DT. If possible, transfer everything to a friend's tank ro a quarantine tank until you clean out the tank completely. The metal and poison will not decay and will stay in the water for a very long time.

Thanks for the tip.

I have a 30gallon skimmerless frag tank which has 4 fish in there already. Maybe I can move a few of the smaller fish over...

Reefer Rob · #3 02-08-2012, 07:38 PM

I don't think the bulb would be the cause of your cloudy water, unless the inner bulb broke. I had an outer bulb break on my 180, and ended up cooking 1/3 of my tank, but no cloudy water, and the fish were unaffected.

Gripenfelter · #4 02-08-2012, 07:58 PM

I agree, cloudy water is more indictive of either an anemone exploding or a bacterial bloom.

GMGQ · #5 02-08-2012, 08:15 PM

I'm thinking the cloudy water could also be from everything that died. All the flesh on the SPS are gone, and the LPS were spewing stuff into the water...

Reefer Rob · #6 02-08-2012, 08:53 PM

Is everything not under that light OK? If so the damage is done. All you can do is some water changes to export the extra nutrients, and I would leave that light off for a couple of days, then slowly bring the photo period back up. Hopefully you can save some of the flesh that was in deep shade. This is assuming the inner bulb is intact.

GMGQ · #7 02-08-2012, 10:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reefer Rob

Is everything not under that light OK? If so the damage is done. All you can do is some water changes to export the extra nutrients, and I would leave that light off for a couple of days, then slowly bring the photo period back up. Hopefully you can save some of the flesh that was in deep shade. This is assuming the inner bulb is intact.

Nope, all SPS have bleached, LPS and zoas long the bottom are closed up. No difference between the left and right of the tank.

This morning I turned off the timer for both MH's, so right now only actinics will turn on. I think i'll get a XM bulb replacement for now...

Here's a pic of the MH bulb:

The inner bulb is in tact. I still couldnt see where the glass went in the tank.

Reefer Rob · #8 02-08-2012, 11:21 PM

I'm thinking it's not the bulb then. It looks like you have enough of the outer casing to give you some shielding. My bulb cracked the same way, but exposed the tank to the whole inner bulb. It cooked only the corals under that halide.

fishytime · #9 02-08-2012, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GMGQ

I'm thinking the cloudy water could also be from everything that died. All the flesh on the SPS are gone, and the LPS were spewing stuff into the water...

+1.....when my tank crashed it looked like milk.....sorry to hear about your troubles man.....the cause is neither here nor there now.....your main focus is damage control.....worry about what caused it after you save your tank...large water changes and get anything that is dead or on its way out, out of the tank asap

Reefer Rob · #10 02-09-2012, 12:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fishytime

+1.....when my tank crashed it looked like milk.....sorry to hear about your troubles man.....the cause is neither here nor there now.....your main focus is damage control.....worry about what caused it after you save your tank...large water changes and get anything that is dead or on its way out, out of the tank asap

How will he know how to treat the tank if he doesn't know what caused it? Water changes are a good idea, but he needs to get to the root of problem in order to fix it. JMO of course.