Lighting question

[Vague]

I have a 40 breeder reef with a quad t-5 HO fixture my bulbs decided to go on the fritz one by one in about 3-4 days. I just ordered new bulbs.... My question is I'm down to one 10,000 k daylight bulb... Is that enough for my corals to survive till the new bulbs arrive? I have a few mushrooms a frogspawn frag acouple small leathers and a few other frags.


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[Sniperhank]

They will do just fine for several days while you wait for the new bulbs to arrive. You are sure it is the bulbs and not something with the unit itself?

 

[Vague]

I think so I had noticed recently that they seemed a little dimmer and one or 2 of them were going gray on the ends, which seemed typical with fluorescent tube lights. So as they went out a day or 2 apart I figured it was the bulbs. I bought the fixture last year and haven't changed the bulbs yet. I've heard t-5's need changed every 6 months to a year.


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[Sniperhank]

Correct, you want to swap them out every 6 months as the color spectrum will change as the bulbs age.

 

[Vague]

Ok thanks for your help


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[tonedogz]

Have you considered led's you won't have to buy bulbs for years and you'll have plenty of light

 

[Vague]

I have I'm kind of up in the air on it because of cost and the 100's of options of LEDs not sure how to tell which ones are good (haven't done research either)

 

[tonedogz]

Well I can tell you that many of the people on this forum are using the taotronic led's and there not all that expensive you probable could have got one unit for the price of the bulbs you just bought and you have to buy them again in six months