how often do you change your bulbs

I just changed all four of my T5 bulbs at once with no problems to my tank inhabitants. The old bulds were about 8 months old. New bulbs rock!

 

I have 3 tanks, all three use T5's and I Run them for 12 months and never lost a piece of coral, had an algae problem or anything else. I have read else where others will go as long as 18 months without changing them but I don't think I want to try that.

I have pushed the ones on my reef to 16 month this last time only becasue I couldn't afford new ones when it came time to replace them. I didn't lose any corals or have an algae problem but I could tell that things we not as happy and there was no growth for the last 3 or so months.

I have heard that if you keep the ends of the bulbs cool, becasue thats where all the heat it you bulbs will last considerably longer. I have fans in all of my hoods not necessarily blowing on the ends but they are pulling out any heat that might build up in there which is what I attribute the long life of my bulbs to.

 

mh once a year
t5 once a year
pc once every 6 months
leds never so they say lol

 

if hes talking about the black rings around the end of the bulbs that is due to the mercury in the ends of the bulb and thats how the bulb fires, every time the bulb fires a little more mercury get placed on the glass tube, of course that mercury is now burned.

 

good info to know there about the mercury..

 

nice info k+

 

does anyone know any upgrades for my 12g nano? its been 5 months should i get the same stock bulbs or are there upgrades?

 

wow theres some useful info here then. definetlely time to change my bulbs! any suggestions for t5 bulbs?

 

if there PC bulbs, uvl is great replacements. if its a weird size bulb then you'll probly be limited to stock, corallife or current bulbs.

 

For actinics:
ATI BLue plus
UVL 454
geissman actinic+

for daylights:
ATI aquablue
geissman aquablue
UVL 75.25 aquablue