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400W 12K ALS SunBurst: Anyone else having quality problems?

A

Anonymous

Guest
I absolutely adore the colour produced by these bulbs and think they far surpass any other colour that I've seen; however I've been having problems with them and I wonder if others have also had quality problems.

I have a dual 400W setup using PFO ballast and also have a single 175W bulb. The 175W bulb has never shown any problems at all.

I began having problems with the 400W bulbs one week after they were installed. One of the bulbs had an internal short circuit and the electrode to the inner glass envelop melted! The other bulb did not appear to be as blue as the one which broke so ALS sent me two new bulbs as replacements.

Just yesterday one of the replaced bulbs went bad on me after only three weeks of use. The bimetallic strip (starter) just fell off!

My hood/canopy flips up 90degrees so that I can feed the tank. The bulbs are mounted so that they also flip up so that when I feed the tank they are "bottom up". Do you think the way I have them mounted is bad? Or is there some serious quality problems with these 400W bulbs?

Just a reminder that the 175W bulb is perfectly fine and doing great after 3 months!

I will be in contact with ALS for another replacement.

Hope to hear from some of you who use these bulbs.

-Nathan



[This message has been edited by Nathan (edited 05 June 2000).]
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
If by 'bottom up' you mean that the bulb is operating vertically with the screw end higher than the glass envelope, that might be a problem. I don't know about the 12K Sunburst, but many MH bulbs are only meant to be burned in a horizontal position plus/minus 20 degrees or so. Shocking the bulb while it is running by allowing the door to slam hard might also be the cause of some damage.

If it is not too hard to do, I'd recommend mounting them so that they don't flip up with the door. At least this removes it as a possible cause. As a side note, the low pricing on the 12K Sunburst does make me wonder if some quality corners are possibly being cut on the product.

--- Ken
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Nathan I wonder if it could be anything to do with the capacitor of the unit you use the quality may be low and may cause problems.
A good quality commercial capacitor I found to cause less problems on my twin 400w system I use the BLV 400w bulbs.
The cheaper lower capacitors tend to hum a bit.
Just some thoughts.
Martyn
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Nathan-

I have the same setup minus the extra 175 watter. It's been up for about 3 weeks so far and no problems. Keeping my fingers crossed.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Have 250 and 400 watt Sunbursts for about 2 months with no problems with any of the three bulbs.....so far.

John
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
hmmmmm After reading your post KenH, wondering if these 2- 250 MH 12,000K will work on my canopy. The whole top of my canopy opens
confused.gif
I know if you drop the top it could and most likely would damge or break the bulb, but just opening and closing would that be a problem?

BArry
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
If it is the opening and closing of the canopy that causes it, then maybe adding adhesive padding to the contact areas might help.

Matty
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Let me clarify some things:

Specifically my bubls are mounted perpendicular to the front of the tank. This makes it inevitable that when the hood opens the bulb will be "base up".

I have one of two options:

1. Mount the bulbs parallel to the front of the tank. This will mean that the bulb is still horizontal when the hood opens.

2. Mount the bulbs in a permanently stationary position. This doesn't really appeal to me since I like to access the tank easily.

I have always taken great care to gently close the hood. Every time I close it, I imagine those $300 that I invested in the bulbs, so I do not let the hood bump or bang at all. I even installed felt on the hinged part so that it closes softly.

KenH may be right that these bulbs shouldn't be constantly tipped from horizontal to vertical.

-Nathan
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Some of you say you have no problems so far in your hinged hood. Could you tell me if your bulbs are mounted perpendicular or parallel to the front of the tank.

-Nathan
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Nathan,
You could turn the MH's off 20 mins before feeding and then just turn them back on when you are finished, everybody in your tank will just think it is cloud cover for an hour.

HTH
Derek


------------------
The result of a many-sided life, is a many-faceted mind.
-Robert A. Heinlein
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
I have a pair of 250 watt 12K sunburst from ALS, mounted on a hinged top and have been in use for about 3-4 months and have had no proplems. I feed the tank 2 times a day.

Fragger.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
I'm not trying to scare anybody about the bulb positioning, it's just that I work with MH lighting in my job where lamp performance over time is very critical and I know that running some types of MH lamps in the wrong orientation can damage them over time.

This precaution does not apply to all types of MH, nor do I know if it would cause the type of catastrophic failure like Nathan is seeing. Normally this requirement (if any) is called out in the lamp specification, but it's pretty hard to find any real information on some of the aquarium bulbs.

Does anyone know who the actual manufacturer is of the 12K Sunburst bulb? Are there any markings on the bulbs or sleeves they came in? I have some industry contacts and can probably track down the real requirements.

--- Ken
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Great news! ALS has awesome customer service. They will send me a new bulb by next day airmail.

I think I will change the mounting position from being perpendicular to parallel and see how it goes.

Anyway, cheers to ALS!

-Nathan
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
here's a little note i found on http://www.championlighting.com about those bulbs

NOTE: We will not warranty any E-Ballast used with 12,000K Sunburst lamps. We don't not sell or recommend this lamp. We have tested this lamp and find it unstable. It will not light on a 400w or 250w E-Ballast. Our test have also shown this bulb to explode on a 175w E-Ballast. We have also had several customer complaints about this bulb.


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My 180 Utopia: Updated 5/21/00

[This message has been edited by FishTechie (edited 13 June 2000).]
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Is anyone using the 12kK bulb with the blue line ballast? If the bulb works with other ballasts and not with the blue line ballast, doesn't that imply the ballast is the problem? Hard to believe that the bulb could actually explode. I was going to try this combination, but maybe I should just get a pfo ballast and burn more coal...
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by FishTechie:
here's a little note i found on http://www.championlightin.com about those bulbs

NOTE: We will not warranty any E-Ballast used with 12,000K Sunburst lamps. We don't not sell or recommend this lamp. We have tested this lamp and find it unstable. It will not light on a 400w or 250w E-Ballast. Our test have also shown this bulb to explode on a 175w E-Ballast. We have also had several customer complaints about this bulb.


<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


Great news ... We have three 175 watt Icecap MH ballast and we just got three of the ALS 12,000K lamps.
frown.gif
I hpe that ours don't blow up.
 
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