150 W Giesemann 13000K
 

Has anyone used this bulb unshielded? How dangerous is it using a DIY bracket without glass? Would the UV burn the corals if I ran it for 15 min on the hour for four hours?

the question is why would you want to run it with out the shield? yes it would not be good to run it that way as the outer glass on a SE is your UV filter, where as a DE dosen't have this.. I wouldn't be worried about the corals as much as your self for skin cancer.

Steve

It will also burn the fish not just the corals. I suspect even about 15 minutes could do some serious damage to them :neutral:

I agree with Christy. I saw an article some time back about someone breaking the shield and not replacing it. Some very serious UV damage to fish and corals.

Better stock up on lots of sunscreen for your reef critters!

Doug

hmm... does the aqualight pro use uv light covers?
because on the website it just says glass cover.

glass alone will filter 99.9% of the worst UV, and something like 94% or the second worse. the third UV is not that bad.. so to anser your question yes they use plane glass as it is a UV filter.

Steve

Thanks for the info. Hopefully I will not develop any cataracts in my eyes because of it. The main reason was for space, as I can fit a 150 Watt MH fixture between the 4 VHOs I have under my canopy. If I modified a work light pendant I don't think I have much room, except for one VHO tube.

I thought I read that DE bulbs had a glass shield and SE bulbs did not. But I did know that DE bulbs have the bad UV-C radiation, that can cause bad sunburn and cancer. Anyways thanks for the info.