How often replace bulbs?

[Lance M.]

Hard to remember all of them. When do replace-

VHO
HO
NO

PC

MH

[Ziggy953]

VHO - about every 6 months

HO - about the same

NO - same

PC - same

MH - same

IMO

I think they should all be replaced after 6 months of use especially if you have corals in your tank. A small price to pay 2 times a year for the all $$$$$$$$$ that we have put in our tanks! Others will say you can get 10 months out of these bulbs, I guess you could. I did out of some of the PC bulbs I used before upgrading to MH. I keep a 2 extra new unused bulbs on had just in case. The VHOs I use are readily available at my LFS so I dont keep them around.

Again my thoughts and O

[melosu58]

I have VHO`s and replace them every 6 months also. I run mine 12 hrs a day also. I believe if you run them 8 hrs a day then you could get away with 8-9 months before changing. I`m also going to move this to hardware and equipment discussion.

[newfound77951]

what about T5's?

[Lance M.]

HO flourscents are T-5's
VHO flourscents are T-12's

The number after the T just tells you the diameter of the bulb. It's in increments of 1/8 inch so a T-5 means the bulb is 5/8 inch in diameter and a T-12 is 1 and 1/2 inches in diameter

Thanks for the move I was thinking it should go in a category with sw and fw but couldn't really think of where to put it, so Hardware fits. I just never think of this section of the forum because I never look at it lol.

O and did you move my tomato clown post to the SW-Getting Started section? That one I don't understand. I thought it would go in the SW-Reef Aquaria section.

lol and I just noticed I've been on this forum five months longer then you and you have 5500 more posts than me That is a lot of time spent on AA lol.

[BillD]

T12 flourescents are available in NO, HO, and VHO. The No 48" tubes are 40 watts, the VHO, are 110 w, and the HO is somewhere in between. Ho and VHO tubes are rated at roughly half of the life of NO tubes of the same type.

[Lance M.]

T-5 HO 48'' tubes are 54 watts.

And you can't use NO flourscents for sw so I don't deal with those at all. I even use pc lights on my fw planted tank.

[seaham358]

Originally Posted by Lance M.

T-5 HO 48'' tubes are 54 watts.

And you can't use NO flourscents for sw so I don't deal with those at all. I even use pc lights on my fw planted tank.

Yes you can.. I had used them for years on my fowlr that turned into a reef. Had Kenya trees under 2x40 watt NO lights and they did fine. Coraline grew fast and the fish colors were great with URI NO bulbs.

[Lance M.]

Yes you can use what ever type of lighting you want on any fish tank. You could even go incandescent if you wanted to! But I wouldnt recommed NO or incandescent for reefs, but like said anything can be done.


By the way, this thread is four months old.

[OceanMist]

And you can't use NO flourscents for sw so I don't deal with those at all

You can use NO fluorescents on SW tanks, in fact the corals in the picture for my avatar are growing under nothing but 2 white and one actinic NO fluorescent tubes, in fact the coral on left has doubled in size in last 4 months or so since I got it and is now at least a foot in diameter.

Although I'm currently changing to a new tank with halide lighting.