How Often Do You Change Your Lights

[fishy55599]

i did believe her untill half hour ago, when i got sent a link about cyano (everybody thinks thats it) and it said change lights every 12 months, so im confused

Awwwhhhhhhh Fishy digs bigger hole

FOR SALE
Young Buddy

Now reduced in price............................

youd be lost without all my questions

 

[seffieuk]

youd be lost without all my questions

Maybe............. Fishy, this is the time when you tell me how fantastic I am (just a hint for the future re: women)

 

[fishy55599]

yes, yes, you are fantastic, best buddy on here

 

[HappyGeorge]

FOR SALE:
One young Buddy - offers invited

Will give you a 4 month old set of T5 bulbs and some marine pellets that my fish won't touch to keep him

I am going to get a light meter on my tank and see how it varies. As you know by now I am the "buy why" kid. I don't believe temp ranges within our houses and tanks will translate as any difference when testing for salinity and not convinced about many things that people claim you have to do, many of them just don't make any logical sense. The fact that bulbs degrade and spectrum shift is fact, the time scale we are talking about seems to have no supporting factual info I can find but everything I can find states between 6 and 12 with reefs being more important obviously, and of course what we are really talking about is the lighting times of the bulb and total usage and not the age of the bulb.

 

[seffieuk]

The fact that bulbs degrade and spectrum shift is fact, the time scale we are talking about seems to have no supporting factual info I can find but everything I can find states between 6 and 12 with reefs being more important obviously, and of course what we are really talking about is the lighting times of the bulb and total usage and not the age of the bulb.

Couldnt agree more - if you only had your lights on for two hours.............. or you didnt have a reef........... then the life of the tube would be much, much longer

However, you DO have a reef and you have your lights on for what, ten hours a day?

So, six to eight months is the guideline - however as GH said, if you are able to test the spectrum loss, perfect, you would never waste money on replacing tubes before they needed to be changed

 

[StandbySetting]

Every 6-12 months dependent on the quality of the tube, lower quality tubes will have vast shifts in colour temperature as well as a gradual reduction in useful power output, and when you're keeping SPS Corals this matters. On a fish only set up though or one with your common soft corals I'd say every 12-24 months as it's not as important that colour temperature is maintained.

 

[seffieuk]

FOR SALE:
One young Buddy - offers invited

Will give you a 4 month old set of T5 bulbs and some marine pellets that my fish won't touch to keep him

 

[ALW]

12 months for T5s
6 months for Halides

 

[seffieuk]

with your common soft corals I'd say every 12-24 months as it's not as important that colour temperature is maintained.

Agree with the 12 months if you plan only softies, would be a bit worried about pushing for 24 though unless a fowlr, however, Fishy, thought you planned on having some hard corals?

12 months for T5s
6 months for Halides

I think it is the other way round

 

[StandbySetting]

Again it will depend on the quality of the tube, a good quality tube should maintain its colour temperature well for a long period of time before suddenly going through a large change in spectrum. Most manufacturers give you a guide of how long it should maintain the colour temperature for in hours, obviously it will vary slightly but the value they state is an average and is generally a good one.

 

[ALW]

I think it is the other way round

Nup most people are advised change Halides every 6 months and T5s every 12.

 

[seffieuk]

Interesting piece:

http/reefkeepingfever.com/lighting.htm

This is also interesting:

http/www.lrc.rpi.edu/programs/nlpip/lightingAnswers/lat5/pc9.asp

That graph appears to be showing the decrease after 2500 hrs (using high quality tubes)

Now for the Maths.............

2500/12hrs = 208.3r hrs / 28 (average days in a month) = 7.4 months.

However, doesnt seem to lose any spectrum after that, which surely cant be right

 

[StandbySetting]

That would be right, the Mercury vapour is slowly absorbed by the glass due to the concentration differences, once there is a less than sufficient quantity of mercury gas left the lamp will gain a pink hue, the excited Argon vapour then becomes the primary source of discharge, and there is no further shift in colour temperature.

 

[seffieuk]

That would be right

Thanks for explaining that is really interesting - I just assumed it continued to loose more and more

 

[weezawoo]

I have been looking at when to replac my halides and found a few places and people saying 12 months!