I have 3 icecap pendant lights for my 220 set up. The bulbs are Hamiltons and they are only 4 weeks old. Left is 250w se 14k, middle is 250w hqi 14k and the right is 250w se 14k-with knowing this....here's the question.

Do i need to the glass shield for the the SE installed on these pendants?...i know i do for the HQI.

The problem i'm having is the sps that i have under each seemed to be doing well up til about 2 weeks ago. Now they've lost most of the polp ext and appear to be dying.

The caps, digi, monti and slimmers i have throughout the middle of the tank are doing great.....can anyone help before more die?

As far as I know you don't have to have the lens on the SE bulbs. I would atleast take them off and see if it helps.

From everything that I have read, the SE bulbs do not need shields. It serves as a UV filter on the DE bulbs, but the outer glass jacket on the SE bulbs serves that same purpose.

--AJ

I would not remove the shield from the bulbs, you have a potential electrical hazard if you do.
All it would take is for one good splash to get up in the pendentent and bye-bye bulbs, with the fallout of them going in your tank.

The lenses will not cause the loss of that much light from the pendent, just make sure they are good and clean, take some CLR or toliet bowl cleaner and clean the lenses really well

I would look into other reasons for coral loss. Is your temp stable?

SE bulbs don't require a UV Shield like the DE do.. Your tissue problems COULD possibly have something to do with too much light (frying the corals with the new bulbs)...The Single ended bulbs are probably putting out more PAR than the DE. Although I would think this would have been more noticeable after 1 week rather than 4.... how long has it been going on?

Sanjay does not have tests for the DE hamilton 14k, but when you compare the (SE)hamilton14k to a (DE) XM 15k the difference is fairly substantial. The SE bulb puts out a lot more. 69ppfd compared to 43 ppfd..

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/light...mit=Submit

I called icecap today and spoke to tech. He said it does filter the UV but i should keep it on due to the reason Troy stated.

I took a water sample into Nick today and we think we figured out the death dealings. My nitrates have shot thru thr roof...160 ppm. Though i have nothing missing or dead in the tank to cause this. Everything else is right on, I did a 35g WC last nite and a 45g tonite. I'll wait a day and see where i'm at.

I was wondering why the other SPS corals are doing fine.....could it be these more suseptable to high nitrate?

Rich more suseptable to high nitrate, that would be my guess.
 
You really need to get a good skimmer!!!! That supper skimmer has got to go!! LOL.

I'm working on it !!!! Seems all the good deals have been gotten already..


Looks like a lot of water changes are forth coming..