Death by Metal Halide?

[Kevin Kolinen]

So I Have recently (2 Days ago) swapped out my standard 2x24w pc lighting/hood, with a 250w metal halide, 14k(hamilton) aqua medic light fixture. I had it hung about 1.5 feet over water. I ran it for 8 hours the first day, Looked AMAZING. woke up the next morning to my Monti that was front and center scorched (I believe) It had turned almost completely white over night. The thing that makes me believe that it was the light that caused the sudden death was that the areas of the coral that were shaded by further growth seemed unaffected. My patch of zoos hadn't opened since the light swap...and worst of all my 2 black clowns started acting funny and i noticed they were breathing heavy. On the second day I switched back to the standard hood and although the monti seemed to not recover, the fish seemed to be regaining their normal behavior. On a whim, the third day i decided to utilize the still in place MH fixture, but to raise it almost double the height to 30 inches from the water. I ran it this way for 7 hours, got home from work and the larger of the 2 clowns was hanging on for dear life at the bottom of the tank kind of laying on the sand bed, breathing VERY heavily. SOOOO, my question to you all is have any of you ever experienced something like this from a lighting upgrade? I also might add that the MH fixture was missing the glass cover upon purchase but the previous owner said it was not a problem at all as he used it this way on a full sps reef with no problems at all. I was told by others that they believe that to be the issue as there was no UV protection to the tank.....????? Any ideas

 

[bjledbetter]

Welcome to R2R. Sorry bout your monti and clowns hopefully they will recover. Sounds like you bleached the monti going from a lower source of lighting to a higher source with out acclimating the corals to it and having the lights on so long. Ive heard that even just a few hours of MH without the UV protection can do major damage to a tank and your own skin. every MH light ive had has come with a warning paper saying not to use it without the cover. Not ever had a issue with that though as mine has covers. As for the fish could have been a Uv issue. Did you notice a increase in the water temp? MH put out a lot of heat which also may have over heated the water taking the O2 out of it. Just a couple thoughts. Maybe some others can help more than me

 

[Kevin Kolinen]

I kept a close eye on temp, believe it or not, the tank actually came down 2 or so degrees I believe from removing the hood.

 

[Kevin Kolinen]

Btw, thanks for your input.

 

[asmashling]

Possibly the Owner had glass on The top of The Tank, blasting mh without an Uv Filter is a Nogo.

Also acclimating the corals to The New light is a Must.
Dependance on what you have in: 1 week 2-3hours a Day The New mh, Rest of The Day your Old lights.
Second week Mh up to 5 hours, third week 7h And in The fourth week Theo only mh..


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[Kevin Kolinen]

I am going to try the schedule as asmashling has recommended. Another question...can I just go to my local hardware store and buy a price of thick glass to fit the fixture, or should I buy the exact piece from the manufacturer?

 

[mcarroll]

Your light uses double-ended lamps, so should have cover glass as part of the fixture. (Single ended bulbs have an outter jacket around the arc tube, so don't need another cover glass.)

For your own health you should get a replacement light, or at least replacement glass. I'm not sure I'd have this fixture on while I was around without it. Try contacting Aqua Medic and see if they can help - eliminates the guesswork of sizing. Failing that, normal glass adequately filters UV. Just not sure of dimensions, especially thickness to fit correctly...or whether to use tempered or not.

Coral Response
As mentioned, bleaching is common in your circumstance (and not a death-sentence - coral can recover even months later sometimes), and can be avoided by following a sensible acclimation scheme. I'd probably recommend just leaving the PC's off permanently and still keeping with the rest of asmashling's recommendation. 3-4 hours should be plenty to keep everyone happy that first few days or week.

Fish Response
Your fish's behavior does sound consistent with oxygen deprivation, which can be common when adding halide lights due to the heat. Hot water holds less O2 and if your system happened to already be borderline for any reason, this would do it. Double check your tank temp with another thermometer maybe?

Also, I'm pretty sure that the effects of UV on your fish would be over time, not overnight. I don't think this is light-related, per se.

Another possible factor...I don't know how dense your tank is, but if your corals are/were bleaching that would also have a depressing effect on the O2 levels in the tank during the day.

Keep a close eye on things and let us know how the reduced-lighting schedule works out!

Good luck!

-Matt

 

[Kevin Kolinen]

Again, thanks to all who have responded in a timely manner. another downside to this whole ordeal is that I had ran out my nitrate and ammonia test kit solutions, and since have not purchased new ones. Will be taking my water into my LFS in a few hours to get it thoroughly checked, to rule out any coincidence of a spike.

 

[Kevin Kolinen]

I also have noticed that the fish are not near the top of the water as I have noticed in the past, during periods of heavy breathing. They actually are sticking to the bottom, almost scared to even come up for feedings...Usually when oxygen deprivation is the cause, the fish are glued to the top inch of water???????