Metal Halide UV Protection

Hello, I am fairly new to this hobby and I have a quesion concerning the Uv coating on the Metal Halide single end bulb. I have a 250W Metal Halide 14,000K mogul based fixture. I was doing some maintainence on the lighting and I used a microfiber cloth to remove the bulb. At this time i realized that I did not allow the bulb enough time to cool down, as the cloth melted onto the bulb. I used a sharp razor blade to remove all the melted fibers on the bulb. Everything is clean, with no signs of cloth material on the bulb. At this point I've also realized that single end style bulbs have UV coating on the bulb, and i was wondering if I had removed the coating off the bulb itself. The real question I am trying to ask is whether the UV coating is on the inside or outside of the bulb? If outside, did I cause any damage?


- thanks

 

Not sure, but if you have any corals underneath that bulb when it's on - and the uv coating is worn off - then your coral will burn up.

 

maybe i would just give the company a call to confirm, the last thing i need is a fatality of any corals.

 

The UV shield is the borosilicate glass envelope that makes up the outer bulb itself.

You should still make sure the bulb is safe to use, any slight imperfection in that outer envelope can cause the bulb to blow up and throw hot glass everywhere. skin oils, melted microfibers, even salt/calcium deposits pose some risk.

I would run the bulb through a complete cycle for 4-5 hours to get it to full temp and make sure the envelope isn't cracked.