Time for a bulb replacement?

[lordroad]

I've been running my 96 watt corallife 50/50 fixture for a solid six months, plus a week or two. Is it time for a replacement? I read that these bulbs supposedly have a little longer life than regular fluorescents. It would be nice if I could squeeze a couple more months out of this one...

 

[OCCFan023]

does it appear to be dimming at all, or are you just worried it may be lacking strength but keeping a normal apperence?

 

[lordroad]

no appearance of dimming. Just going by routine of changing bulbs every six-eight months. Thanks for reminding me, though, OCC. Tonight I need to clean the acryllic screen of salt and water stains. But it seems to be as bright as ever, and the corals are all doing fine.

 

[Lotus]

If that's a CF fixture, the bulbs generally need changing less often than normal output fluorescents. I'm not too sure if the actinic will degrade faster than other spectra or not, though.

 

[KahluaZzZ]

the spectrum shift will not be visible at first, so you need to change before it looks crappy. Some fluo have lifespawn of approx 10000 hours ..maybe they're just telling that after 10000 hours their bulb will probably be dead...anyways, if you think that 6000 hours is a good change, and you're light is on like 8 h a day, you'll still have some time before you go buy a new one.

 

[1979camaro]

i think about 9 months is the max for optimum output...i actually ran my last set for over a year without negative effects on the livestock but they definitely yellowed