David593

I have a 55 gallon tank with two hoods (one fore each side) Anyways, The lighting is flouresent and its purpleish for i think its ultra violet. Anyways, again, when on, the lights give off a funky smell. When I turn them on the smell slowly goes away but once its back in, it smells weird again. It faily strong when you open the hood, but other than that its not too noticable from the room

Any ideas on what it could be?
Can this be a hazardous problem?

David593

Spelled funky wrong in the title

Butterfly

all better now
Is the light tightly enclosed? Could it be getting hot?
carol

Martinismommy

Are you using prime water conditioner? Have you ever smelled it? It has a very foul smell.....

Drew 43920

Why would the light be ultraviolet ? Seems odd. Are you sure bulb or ballast are not burning out ?

David593

Its just like most strip lights. And its not due to ever heating because it smells right when its on and sometimes when its off. It not a big deal as it not noticable unless you open the hood. I just want to make sure that ts not potentially harmful for my fishies.

David593

ok its probably not ultra-violet. Im not familiar with lights so no clue there. I only said that because the light gives off a purpleish color, rather than my 10 gal light that gives off a whilte color.

David593

and im not using prime

Drew 43920

This is a guess. The bulb is burning out. But that might not be the reason for the smell. I have never heard of a purple aquarium bulb.

David593

ok, now I'm kinda nervous about the bulb...

1. How can i tell if it is burning out
2. Come to think of it, the smell kind of resembles mildew.

Amanda

My 10 gal. light has a purplish tint. It's a regular flouresccent bulb, not a bulb specified for an aquarium.
Just to be safe, I replaced my 55 gal. tank lights when I bought it (got it off craigslist).

David593

Ok. that makes sense...Maybe I should just replace the bulb and wile I'm at it...is there a safe way to clean the holder and possibly remove the smell? can i used soap and such since the light dont go in the water.

Amanda

You could use a bleach solution & maybe an old toothbrush or something to scrub out the holder

David593

ok. cool! ya, i think maybe it might have fallen in sometime and got wet. The only thing that I find weird is that both of them smell the same. So I guess they both got wet?

Amanda

Maybe it was kept in a basement or garage?
Just make sure the light it removed & unplugged.
We don't want any aquarium related deaths.

David593

No we do not... YIKES

Amanda

lol

navyscuba

I cleaned my light fixtures with CLR to get all the residue that forms in the light.

David593

omg this is turning into a nightmare. Everything is going wrong. Before all this there was a horiible smell in the tank and it was super cloudy, so we bought new gravel. now its clear but the smell if coming back. I think its the hood. By the time I get this fixed up it will be lots of money wasted. OH gosh....

Butterfly

Before you changed gravel were there dark spots anywhere on it? Occasional bubbles coming up out of the gravel?
Carol

capekate

This is very odd... I thought after I read the first post that others may have this problem too. Reason being is that my 55g tank which has two hoods and lights also seem to smell. I always notice it when I turn off the hood light during the day when its water change time. I turn off the lights remove the hood and get a whiff of something that I just cant describe. I always thought maybe the light was too hot? But it is the standard light that came with the hood. So I was wondering since the light is hot, that possibly it is attracting odor from the tank.(why it would do this, I have no idea) But when I take a whiff of the water, there is no odor at all. Just coming from the hood light.
So.. I also have no idea what it is, and just attribute it to the hood and light and Im not going to worry about it. The hood light is about two years old when I bought it new.
very odd....

Wyphy

One way to tell if a lamp is old and needs replaced is to look at the glass near the end of the tube.
If the glass is darkening at either, or both ends, it's definitely past its prime and should be replaced.

Perhaps the smell could also be from a cheap/failing starter? Does the lamp flicker when it turns on?
Many (most?) inexpensive light fixtures have a wall-wart ballast and a starter tucked behind the 'reflector' behind the lamp.
See 'How Fluorescent Lamps Work (Pg. 4)' for how this works.
Don't really know why this would cause that, but it's a thought.
If you want to try replacing the starter, you can find them at your LFS for $2-$4 for a two pack, or at a hardware store for slightly cheaper. You need the same rating as what you have, so hopefully you've replaced the lamp with the same size/watt rating as the original; the new starters have numbers that tell their type, FS2 (14/15/20W) or FS4 (13/30/40W) are most common for our fixtures.
You can see one of these on that site link, but the ones in our fixtures (usually) don't have the 'can' part, so you have to take it off (easy) and connect it the same way as the old one.
Be sure to tape all the leads so that there can be no shorts. Oh, and I certainly hope you know that you should have the lamp unplugged before taking it apart; I recommend unplugging when the lamp is on to aid in discharging any stored current in the ballast.

David593

THATS EXACTLY right! It smell very weird and kind of bad (IMO). But it is not in the water. It is only like on the light. I have the hood on the tank and I took the light holder + bulb off. The aquarium smells fine so its just the light.

what you described is exactly what I am experiencing. It quite unpleasent


i wish i knew what is was

snesking

does the bulb smell musky thats how my bulb smells?

agabr123

my best guess would be that water is evaporating and then getting trapped in the hood somehow...

also, the purple-ish light could be normal, i bought a brand new hood/light for my 20 and it had a purple tint to it that i absolutely hated, but i replaced the bulb as soon as i had the money for it

David593

Well i replace the lights about 3 weeks ago and havn't had the problem since. So it must have been the bulb.