New MH Pendant - Burning smell

Turd Ferguson · Mar 1, 2021

250W pheonix housed in a Hamilton Cayman Sun pendant.

The light has been running for perhaps 7 hours and there is a slight burning smell coming from the pendant. You need to get close to tell there is an odour, I.e 6 or so inches...but it’s there.

Is this normal for a new MH system? Can’t say I’ve ever noticed it on previous fixtures, but they had cooling fans integral to the fixture and were were not Hamilton pendants.

ballast is warm, but no odour.

btw, I’ve the pendant vents, (narrow side), facing the front of the tank...yes, a bit backwads

Thanks in advance !

tehmadreefer · Mar 1, 2021

Normal

Vette67 · Mar 1, 2021

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My cayman suns didn’t seem to smell, but I didn’t get that close to them. They definitely throw some heat, so it wouldn’t surprise me. I’m sure it’ll go away. I have 2-250W DE’s on the center and right and a 175 mogul on the left. I set these up at the beginning of February, so they are pretty new.

Bpb · Mar 1, 2021

Likely just manufacturing oils and bits of dust roasting off. Once they burn for a while the smell should subside. Cooling fans in a halide fixture are more to keep the pendant itself cooler to the touch or to vent off heat building up around the unit. They’re functionally irrelevant as getting super hot is basically what makes a metal halide work. If you cool it down it’ll muck up the spectrum and output

A. grandis · Mar 1, 2021

Normal. As long as you don't see any smoke coming from the fixture and the smell is like oils and/or a bit of paint like smell. All fixtures, including my Spectra, had a bit of that initial odor.
I'm very happy for you! Many people going back to halides and even more exciting... some new folks trying and enjoying the benefits of them.

Turd Ferguson · Mar 3, 2021

Thanks for the input.

So happy to have ditched the T5 and go back to Halides. I’ve SPS that were hurting, lost colour, no polyp extension, now coming back to life. Running about 4-5 hours a day while the tanks adjusts.

im going to have to shade the hammer and frogspawn, but the torch is loving the light. I’ve also noticed less algae on the glass and the diatoms seem to be making a run for it.

Also, so far no issues with heat. I think I’ll supplement with a Kessil so I can have a extended photoperiod At lower intensities. Water evaporation seem somewhat the same. If needed, I’ll buy a larger reservoir

Time to stock up on bulbs In the event supply become slim pickings.

thanks for all your comments the last couple months. It’s helps, I’m happy with the decision to run halides. The colour and intensity is outstanding...just like the good old days. Now if only I could buy acro colonies and live rock.

jda · Mar 3, 2021

PEC stopped making Phoenix 14k in about 2013/2014/2015. They started again after a brief absence once they saw that demand was incredible. I would not worry about them not being manufactured - they made that mistake once and said that they will not make it again. I am not Japanese, but heard that this is branded as a general lighting bulb in Japan like Radium is in the EU, so more demand than just aquarium people. In any case, Hamilton and Giesemann are selling record amounts of bulbs, but that also could be that more people are in the hobby now than ever so not much risk of not having them for sale. Heck, as long as UVL is still making VHOs, whose demise has been promised for at least a decade, then MH is probably safe.

A. grandis · Mar 3, 2021

Since the first aquarium LED I remember we always had the competition (LEDs) comparing to halides cause they know it's the very best artificial reef lights there is. They used PAR to show how much "better" their LEDs were. Up to this date they are still doing that way! Eco Tech and Maxpect are good examples!!! Hamilton is still strong and represents/supplies the US reefers really well! I think halides are coming back mainly because of it's unbeatable qualities and most important the amazing results. Public aquariums are getting their halides back too, as Tullio said in one of the videos. I won't be surprised to see new fixtures and bulbs on the market in the near future. We just have to hope for the best. Main thing we still have great bulbs available. That is what matters the most!!!

Jay Norris · Mar 6, 2021

A. grandis said:
Since the first aquarium LED I remember we always had the competition (LEDs) comparing to halides cause they know it's the very best artificial reef lights there is. They used PAR to show how much "better" their LEDs were. Up to this date they are still doing that way! Eco Tech and Maxpect are good examples!!! Hamilton is still strong and represents/supplies the US reefers really well! I think halides are coming back mainly because of it's unbeatable qualities and most important the amazing results. Public aquariums are getting their halides back too, as Tullio said in one of the videos. I won't be surprised to see new fixtures and bulbs on the market in the near future. We just have to hope for the best. Main thing we still have great bulbs available. That is what matters the most!!!

Are they still making the mogul 14k Phoenix?

A. grandis · Mar 6, 2021

Jay Norris said:
Are they still making the mogul 14k Phoenix?

It was discontinued in US long ago. I'm not sure if they are still in production in Japan. The quality of that bulb was so great it had a 6 months warranty. Too bad good things tend to go away like that!

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