Dead HQI Bulb

I have a Current-USA Sunpod with the 2 150 watt DE Phoenix bulbs and yesterday ordered 2 xm 20,000 bulbs which will come in a few days. Today my left bulb just died on me now luckily I have 2 slightly used current bulbs so I switched out the bulbs. The current bulbs look almost like 10,000k. Should I have left only phoenix bulb in till I get the new bulbs? I read I should be doing maintenace like cleaning the bulbs. Does anyone else clean HQI bulbs or the ballast? I could take out the screws from the sides and try to clean the ballast from accumulated dust. What do you think?
Adam

 

Just make sure there is no salt creep on the light socket and never leave oily finger prints on the bulbs. Always wash the bulbs off with rubbing alcohol if you have to touch them. What K is the bulb that burned out 20k??

 

Dead Bulb

A Phoenix 14000K bulb died after exactly 9 months. I am going to get a computer keyboard air compressor to shoot out the dust in the sunpod fixture. Is this safe to do? Maybe this is a stupid question but what does the light socket look like? Is it internal?

 

You should be ok with the 10k until the new bulbs get there. Blowing out the ballast is good maintenance because they can get hot.

 

Dead Bulb

So you would recommend taking the screws out to blow out the dust from the sides of the fixture?

 

The socket is the hole where the bulb connects.

 

Since you have an HQI fixture, you will have two ends (each) that the bulbs connects to. They are basically pressure fit, so make sure you don't have any dust, debris or salt creep on those connections nipples. You shouldn't have salt creep since HQI fixtures require a UV filtering glass splashguard. I had a hard time getting my HQI to start the first time. I had to turn my bulb a certain way (the internal nipple in the bulb) turned up, before it would fire up. As far as opening the ballast to clean it out, it couldn't hurt, just make sure you unplug it and move it away from the tank. My fish likes to splash the water, so anytime I work with my lights, I move it away from the splash zone.
When buying HQI and MH bulbs, just make sure you have a compatible bulb with the ballast you own. Some bulbs are not compatible with pulse start ballasts, etc.
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