Where do you buy UV glass?

[Lyscer]

My aquamedic pendants went for a swim in my tank and the uv glass that protects the bulb broke. I can't seem to find any places that sell the 1/8" thick uv glass? Anyone know where I can buy a replacement piece?

[ravenmore]

Normal glass will work.

[orion76]

Any glass will work as long as it's not Starfire type glass.

[deansreef]

does normal glass provide uv protection??? I also need to replace the glass in my fixture

[Lyscer]

I sent an e-mail to aquamedic and they said that they will have the glass pieces in, in a couple of weeks, but in a previous e-mail I sent them in Dec, they said the same thing. I asked them what I could do instead of wait for them and they said that I need to put a piece of UV tempered glass in.

NORMAL GLASS DOES NOT WORK, IMO DON'T TRY IT. I put in a piece of normal glass and after the lights had been on for 5 minutes the piece of glass popped and then shattered into my tank which I got to clean out. This is just my experience others may have had better luck.

[piscivorous]

I had looked into "UV tempered" glass from a local glass shop as I was considering using DE MH bulbs. They called their supplier and no one had ever heard of it or could get it. Glass in itself I believe has some UV filtering qualities....when it comes down to it, you are going to want tempered glass with the lights. I expect that a piece of tempered glass would work fine.

[deansreef]

so tempered glass will do the trick?

[RichConley]

Theres no such thing as "UV Tempered"

Any tempered glass will work. You can tell tempered glass by looking at it through a polarized lens.

[impur]

Any glass will work. If you think the glass will get real hot, go with tempered glass. There is no specific UV glass.

[deansreef]

only problem is no one will cut tempered glass that small!!!!

[impur]

Keep calling. I found a glass shop to cut me 3"X3" squares.

[onthefly]

Most glass shops with cut, then temper custom cuts.

[Lyscer]

What size is the aquamedic oceanlight pendants glass? I seem to have misplaced the dimensions that I need. Thanks.

[Lyscer]

anyone?

[Northtampatang]

Dont use regulat tempered glass as UV shields for HQI bulbs.

Call around to your local glass shops and see if any of the have "low E" glass.

"low E" I blelieve stands for low emission (UV emission)

regular glass may work fine with single ended bulbs, but you will have UV burn using regular glass on oHQI's , it may not be as bad as no glass, but there will be UV burn without a doubt.


I had to call about 5 glass shoppes here in tampa before I found any with low E in stock, but patience paid off (it was for a 70w HQI retro for a nano tank) I ran the HQI without it for two days and I severly burned many corals and it damaged the fins of the fish. The tank originally had 130W PC's over it so it wasnt just the shock of changing lights.

There is an article in the issue before last of Coral magazine addressing just this topic. The author has the same experience that I did, but lost alot more corals and fish

[Lyscer]

SO I need to get low e glass. Does it need to be tempered? And do you happen to know the size of the glass piece?

[Northtampatang]

I can measure the size of the pane tomorrow, i'm switching tanks. My lights are on now and I dont want to get burned

Do a google search on " low e glass" I do not know if the make a tempered low e or not

[Lyscer]

If anyone is following this thread, I finally had time to measure the glass piece from my other pendant and I measured it at
7 5/16 x 4 9/16 x 1/8
length x width x height

[PsychoKnight]

Low-E glass is vital for custom homes with delicate/exotic furniture and museum quality paintings or prized photo-enlargements. Its specialty glass for these purposes and necessary - as a matter of consideration, it could block out too much UV of the wrong spectrums, then you have the opposite effect of UV burnout. In all cases of UV burn, its not the type of glass, but rather the absence of any glass. You already checked w/ the manufacturer and they didn't mention low-E, so not likely they would use it or for sure they would've insisted on waiting for their proprietary glass cuts. They said UV only because they could be liable for damages to your eyes if they said just use any tempered glass you find, they didn't mean for you to go out and hunt down UV glass - it wouldn't have hurt if they explained that any common glass w/out special optical-clarity claims would fit the bill once it was tempered. Find a place that can temper the glass after its cut.

[piscivorous]

My local glass shop had low-e (UV restant) glass...and they had tempered glass....but they have never heard of Low-E tempered glass....they called their suppliers...and the suppliers had never heard of it either. Obviously you will burn everything including yourself if you don't have ANY glass under your DE bulbs...but I'd like to hear from a REPUTABLE source...such as a representative of a manufacturer, as to what SPECIFICALLY they are using for glass. With the heat build up from MH bulbs you definitely want a glass that is tempered....I know guys who used regular glass and it shattered just from accident water splashes. So tempered is a must....the real question is regarding what amount of UV resistance. Glass on its own provides a certain degree of UV resistance and does infact absorb UV rays. QUOTE from "Marine Reef Aquarium Handbook" by Dr. Robert J. Goldstein regarding UV Sterilizers "Because UV rays are absorbed by glass, water and dissolved salts, maximum germicidal effects require that the 2,537 A. bulb be enclosed in quartz through which the radiation can freely pass." With this...a Low-e glass...may actually block out more than you want to block out.....so, again....I think plain tempered glass would be enough...but, AGAIN, I would like to hear definitively from a reputable source.

[Lyscer]

Very interesting. I e-mailed aquamedic just a second ago and tomorrow I will see if I can call them to get an answer that is a little clearer. Seems as though there are a lot of people wondering about this.

[Lyscer]

Here is what Mike from aquamedic said in response to my e-mail:

Dale,

Do not run the light with out any glass covering it or you will damage all things alive. I have heard it is next to impossible to get the right glass cut with out buying large amounts. Untill I can get more glass in I would suggest you try to get a piece that is simply tempered. This should get you by for now. I am trying to get some in this week.

Cheers
Mike

e-mail was recieved 02-06-06

[chilyb56]

my understanding is that standard glass starts to absorb somewhere between 350-300nm (I could check this, but definitley almost all light below 300 nm will be cut off). Quartz is transparent down to around 200nm which is why you need to use it for UV sterilization - generally a 254nm bulb is used to kill the bugs and break down molecules. So I think any piece of glass should be ok - tempered will be better to handle the heat stress.

[deansreef]

Lyscer.

I am awaiting on aquamedic for a replacement piece also, please advise if you hear back from Mike and I will do the same

Dean

[piscivorous]

Has anyone else heard anything about this, or know of any "reputable" source that would be willing to comment on this subject???

[Lyscer]

I'm going to be conducting a test today. I ordered some tempered glass(little under $7) and I'm going to put it in the aquamedic pendant. We'll see if things still get uv burn. Hopefully they do not :). I'll let you know in a couple days what my findings are.

[piscivorous]

Does anyone actually have any kind of light meter who could get a more scientific reading from an experiment like this???

[chilyb56]

you want to measure the UV absorption. Glass is amorphous SiO2 that is mixed with other materials. It's the other materials in the glass that will absorb the UV. Quartz on the other hand is also SiO2, but it's a pure crystal lattice that is transparent to UV radiation. Basically almost all glass your going to find is going to absorb the really nasty high energy (bond-breaking) UV light. If you feel that the glass gets hot, then it must be absorbing energy from the lamp. I suppose you could also get special glass that is coated or doped to absorb at longer wavelengths, but that might take away from blue light that is beneficial for your corals. That being said, I don't know the spectrum of your lamp or at what wavelengths of light begins to damage coral. However, sunlight has a lot of UV radiation, and they seem to do fine.

[Lyscer]

So on Thursday I picked up my piece of Tempered glass and installed it. I put a large colony of Frogspawn at the bottom of my tank directly underneath the light. Today is Monday and the Frogspawn is doing awsome! So apparently the the tempered glass does absorb some of the harmful UV rays and it is also able to withstand the intense heat from the bulbs. Just thought I would share my results.

[impur]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6729266#post6729266 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lyscer
So on Thursday I picked up my piece of Tempered glass and installed it. I put a large colony of Frogspawn at the bottom of my tank directly underneath the light. Today is Monday and the Frogspawn is doing awsome! So apparently the the tempered glass does absorb some of the harmful UV rays and it is also able to withstand the intense heat from the bulbs. Just thought I would share my results.

Good to hear! Thanks for the update.

[Lyscer]

11 days have gone by and everything in my tank is still doing good so I will assume that the tempered glass absorbs enough of the harmful UV's to make it possible for organisms to live in my tank.

[Lyscer]

Aquamedic has the pendant glass in YEAH! I just got an e-mail from Mike letting me know.