Used bulb, any good?

I bought a 2 week old bulb with the light unit(bargain will use unit as spare) £30,

The bulb is Boyu HQI 150watt, anybody know if they are any good?

 

Hi Stingray

might be OK short term but I would monitor my corals a bit more often whilst testing it

Boyu as you probably know are a Chinese company, and whilst I have no experience of this particular lamp, I would hesitate to use it myself, due to fact local produce has a reputation for losing its colour spectrum much faster than the better quality lamps would

I have tried other local brands of MH lamp and have found they deteriorate far quicker than the imported ones I can get by XM for example

Steve

 

One thing I've learned is, "you get what you pay for". Especially with lighting, that is not something you want to take shortcuts with because it can directly cause major problems IMO. Keep a close eye on it like Steve said, once you start to lose the spectrum you will see a change. You might also see more algae and a yellow tint if the bulb is completely bad.

 

Buying used lightning is like buying a car that doesn't have a mile counter on it, you don't truly know how long it's been used.

 

Ok, thanks for replys,
The bulb is to be used for the time being, while the tank cycled, a couple of small fish and soft corals are all that will be in there for a few months, when I start adding lps im looking at this bulb, it seems to be a better quality then the other cheap makes on ebay and any feedback would be great,
Thanks

BLV Nepturion 150w 20000k Marine Halide Lamp Bulb Tube | eBay

 

I like the Phoenix 14k bulbs myself. But they are very blue for a 14k. When it comes to bulbs you get way you pay for. I would go for a brand name IMO.

 

OP

Phoenix 14k all the way