When to replace lights???

[Rockcrawler]

My tank has been up for a year now and I have been told by the LFS the lights need changed.
How do I know when to replace my lights?
What is it that does not work after a period of time?
Is there any testing equipment that can tell you if they are still working?
Or is this just a plot by the light cartel to keep us buying lights we don't need...

[swjunkie]

there are different recommendations for different bulbs. They do need to be replaced. The bulbs will lose their intensity after a certain period. some about every 6 months some every 12 months and some every 18 months. also I have read on this site that if you let your lights go too long when you finally do replace them you will need to reacclimate your tankmates to the new lights. (being that they will be much brighter).

[Biggen]

If any of your lights have been running for a year, its time to change them out. What happens is as the bulb ages, the spectrum of light emitted changes to a light that can spawn excessive algae growth.

A rule of thumb is that VHO and PC's should be changed every 9-12 months where MH's are good for 12 months.

[jasno999]

Interesting.

But what abut actual on time usage?

If I am oly using my lights for 5 hours a day then what tiem frame am I looking at?

If I use them for 8 hours a day it would be different.


I think you guys need to define actual usage times.

[cmor1701d]

The replacement time is based on a normal reef photo period of 12 hours/day for actinic and 10 hours a day for the 10k lights. I have found that the PC bulbs start producing algae at around 7 months so I changed mine every 6 months. I now have MH for my 10k lights and will replace those bulbs annually.

What kind of lights do you have?

[Biggen]

Originally Posted by jasno999

Interesting.

But what abut actual on time usage? If I am oly using my lights for 5 hours a day then what tiem frame am I looking at? If I use them for 8 hours a day it would be different. I think you guys need to define actual usage times.

If you are only running them 5 hours a day then I assume you don't have a reef tank. Correct? If so, you could probably get away with changing them out at longer intervals because the lights really aren't doing that much to begin with for you anyway. If they are only on for small periods just to the see fish you probably won't get the excessive algae growth that most others would had they been left on for longer periods.