PC Lights Keep Breaking... What to Do?

[BBReef]

My friend just recently bought an 80 gallon tank and I have been helping her with the setup/maintence and pretty much everything else. She bought a Coralife 4x96w setup that I installed in her hood for her, but after about a month, 2 of the bulbs broke, cracked the little glass piece at the end that hold the two pieces together.

A couple days later another one broke, same spot. What causes bulbs to break like this?? bad bulbs? I know they get hot so I installed two 4" fans in there and they still broke. Any ideas as to what might be happening??

Also does anyone know if there is a warranty of any kind on the bulbs or do we have to go buy new ones?

Thanks for your help.

 

[MYTY1705]

could be just a bad set of lights. Is there and pressure on the tubes horizontally. If so that may contribute. As for a warranty I doubt it. I would just buy new bulbs.

 

[fishfreek]

I take it there is no way water is getting splashed up on the hot bulbs?

I would contact coralife and see what they are willing to do. These bulbs should not be breaking like this.

 

[gilraen]

I have an orbit fixture and been hearing some cracking, so I checked and there is no breakage anywhere I can see, but two of the light bulbs are the dual actinic kind and one side of each bulb is not working!!! So I have I side totally blue and the other...well...nothing! I bought this thing 3 months ago and didn't realize this. Grrrrrrr this sucks!

 

[malkore]

I had a coralife fixture that came with a funky bulb. something inside it rattles around if you flip the bulb end over end, and it would just shut itself off randomly. i thought it was the ballast until I dropped in another bulb and it worked perfectly.

I have the suspicion that coralife puts good craftsmanship into fixtures, but skimps on teh bulbs.

 

[Smo]

You need to watch out for the 2 different sizes of metal bulb clips. Not sure if this may pertain to the 96watt bulbs but it's worth a try.
I had a Coralife 65watt enclosed unit with the sliding plexiglass protector that took the regular PC bulbs. Now I have a JBJ retro kit 65watt and the 2 PC light clamps that came with it are too small for my bulbs from the Coralife unit. Their width is shorter.
New bulbs are on the way. If I need to, I will get some wider clips.
What I'm getting at is be sure the lamps fit into the clips smoothly. You shouldn't have to force them. I've heard this is what causes some bulbs to break at the end where the 2 are fused together.

Just my $0.02 worth.

 

[BBReef]

thanks guys... ill look at the clips and make sure they are the right size. the owner of the store where we bought them told us she would sell us new bulbs at cost so we are going in tomorrow to get them. hopefully they will work.