I'm not worried about the frags, they can be replaced (and its not like I don't have any frags
) Most were from Sarah and a couple from Snappy. Life isn't over, its just so bloody frustrating. First the wavebox and now this. Things just happened too close to one another I guess.
The bulb was an ushio single ended, just under a year old. I never bothered to put glass on the reflectors simply because it wasn't required and I never thought the bulb would break and keep running (of all things! in my world when a lightbulb breaks it stops working, apparently this isn't so in metal halide land). In hindsight I really should have glass covers on my reflectors and I'll be measuring them right quick. My regal tang is a complete arsehole and loves to gulp air after eating which often results in his tail flipping water as he dives downward. He sometimes does this when he's bored too.
I've put several screens over the tank on the affected side. It looks kind of funny actually, I'm using an old piece of undergravel filter that came out of a sump I bought, some plasticky green netting and a couple small chunks of eggcrate I found. It still lets too much light through IMO but I'll do the reduced photoperiod too.
I fed everyone some mysis just a bit ago to see if my royal gramma was still around as I hadn't seen him yet. He's a belligerent bastard but timid when he's spooked. I saw his butt as he flashed by so everyone is accounted for (unlikely that he would be affected by the UV as he likes to hide out in the rocks). The PBT ate, so he can see. The scopas doesn't look too bad except for the eyes and he ate. Its mostly the PBT that is affected the worst as he likes that side of the tank and was probably too stunned to clue into the fact that he was getting burned.
Lesson learned: put glass on your reflectors regardless of bulb type if you have retarded fish.