I have one of these bulbs and I have only been using it a month and the light stopped working. I can't find any where online where it says how many hours of light this bulb should be able to handle before it dies. Is this normal?
I sure hope it's the light and not the light fixture or I'll be ticked
I ordered another one but ti will take 2 days to get here. That's 2 days my plants are going to go with out light. I'm not very happy. Guess I should have bought a back up bulb.
Let's hope it is the tube and not the fixture; the new tube should sort this out.
Tubes are usually said to last for "x" thousand hours, so it should not give out after only a month. But these things do sometimes happen. If it does turn out to be the tube [if the new tube works fine in the fixture], I would contact the manufacturer. They are a big name in the aquarium industry and might well replace it (or something comparable). The local store might not, but then they didn't make it.
Since the bulb is black on the ends, either the bulb was defective or your ballast isn't driving the bulb hard enough. I have had this happen a couple of times with HO lighting:-(
If it's the bulb and it's been only a month, as Byron said, contact the manufacturer. I am sure they'll replace, esp if you still have the receipt. If it's the fixture, when did you buy it? The manufacturer's warranty on this should be one year. So if it's still within warranty period, contact them with the receipt. The'll send you a replacement. They replaced mine within warranty period.....
You should be able to buy a 6500, or 6700 K bulb at a home improvement store. Lowes, Menards, Home Depot. Don't know if the wattage would be the same as an aquarium oriented bulb, but it would be better than no light at all;-)
I'm just gonna add my .02 cents here since I had the same problem so just in case...
If your Light Fixture is sitting directly on your glass top like mine was.... they are too hot and it will blow the bulb. Mine even melted the plastic sliding cover on the fixture. I took it back to the LFS (Big Al's Newmarket woohoo shout out!) and they first replaced the bulb as it was less than 3 months. They sent it back to the manufacturer for me. That proved the fixture worked! Then he had to cut the melted part off the clear slider as it was a big lumpy bubble of hard plastic. He doctored the end with some electrical tape and told me to set the lamp about 1" off the glass! I have it sitting on 2 plastic business card holders but you could also use 2 bits of wood, anything to give it the space and air flow needed.
Oh ya.... No charge by the way!! Hope yours works out to be just as easy a fix!
I'm just gonna add my .02 cents here since I had the same problem so just in case...
If your Light Fixture is sitting directly on your glass top like mine was.... they are too hot and it will blow the bulb. Mine even melted the plastic sliding cover on the fixture. I took it back to the LFS (Big Al's Newmarket woohoo shout out!) and they first replaced the bulb as it was less than 3 months. They sent it back to the manufacturer for me. That proved the fixture worked! Then he had to cut the melted part off the clear slider as it was a big lumpy bubble of hard plastic. He doctored the end with some electrical tape and told me to set the lamp about 1" off the glass! I have it sitting on 2 plastic business card holders but you could also use 2 bits of wood, anything to give it the space and air flow needed.
Oh ya.... No charge by the way!! Hope yours works out to be just as easy a fix!
Update: Amazon sent me the wrong size bulb 2 times in a row so my tank went way to long with out light. The water is now all brown and a few of my plants died back but they are alive. I'm doing a water change today and testing all the levels. I also think I need a fertilizer since I have none.
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