Aquarium Lighting

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When Do You Replace Your Bulbs?

  • 6 months

    Votes: 1 7.1%
  • 6-9 months

    Votes: 1 7.1%
  • 9-12 months

    Votes: 3 21.4%
  • when they blow!

    Votes: 9 64.3%

  • Total voters
    14
LED, ill replace it when the unit shorts in a few years!!! Ā medium-tech planted
 
Me my 14 watt has benn running for 3 years counting
 
When I was running tubes I would replace every 12 months, on both high and low tech tanks.
 
it all depends on the tube, T8s you should replace every 6 months T5s are every 2 years (i think) and high powered LEDs, when they blow or stop workingĀ 
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high tech, low tech.Ā in-between. cant vote on that oneĀ eitherĀ :(Ā Ā 
 
T8's every 6 month? mine say have service life of 7500 hrs?
 
well i got told 6-8 months for T8's,Ā personallyĀ i change them when they blow and my plants are fineĀ 
 
I use a pair of 30w t8s for my high tec, and have been running them for nearly 2 years.
 
The thing is that the human naked eye is not as sensitive as plants are to the strength/power of light, so even if your lighting looks asĀ bright as it did 10-12 months ago the light that is beingĀ emmited will beĀ lower than when the bulb was new.
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This will make a difference to your plants, itĀ will not be that noticable in a low tech set up but will be more notcable in a high tech set up. WIth my LED tiles I can set them at 85% and then anything higher up to 100% is not noticable to my eyes. After swapping my T5 bulbs after 12 months use I would notice my plants pearling a lot heavier than they did with the 12 month old tubes.
Ā 
Like Mike said using bulbs till they blow is fine, your plants wont die off they will just adapt to the lower levels of light and grow slower.
 
im running 1 T8 on my low tech new bulb / set up not so long agoĀ 
 
mike455555 said:
im running 1 T8 on my low tech new bulb / set up not so long agoĀ 
Ā 
On a low tech set upĀ IĀ like you wouldĀ just run the bulb till it dies out.
 
Thanks for the replies interesting to see what people do, guess my t8's have some life left in them yet
 

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