How often do you change your VHO light bulbs?

[Jana]

Hi -
This is obviously a newbie question :roll: ...I have been a lurker for the last couple of weeks & have been reading the posts on & off. There is so much information out there now & some of it seems controversial. I have had fresh water tanks for a long time & then moved up to saltwater tanks. Most of my information comes from the LFS or from books so please bear with me. I had been picking out the bristleworms from my tank up until a week ago with tweezers at night & getting thoroughly grossed out by the experience due to a statement in a book that said bristleworms were bad news to a reef tank. I was so pleased to find from the discussions here that bristleworms that exist in the reef aquarium environment were actually good.
Anyway, my question is this...how often do ya'll change your light bulbs? I have 4 URI VHO's over my 75 gallon reef on a timer that stay on for about 9 hours. I have heard everything from yearly to my corals will tell me at the LFS. Since I have not been able to learn the language of corals yet I was hoping to hear from the reef gurus what they do.
Thank you in advance. - Jana

 

[OodleyBoodely]

Since you are using one of the better quality bulbs out there (URIs), you may be able to go a year between changes. When I bought my VHO retro kit, it came with Corallife bulbs and I HAD to change them at about 4 months. They had turned black at the ends and change in color temp was clear to see. I replaced with URI actinics and Home Depot NO 6500K whites (electronic ballasts will overdrive NO bulbs to very close to the same output as VHOs). It has been over 6 months now and both type bulbs are still looking good and my coral are still thriving. I will probably change the HD bulbs soon, but, I am hoping the actinics will last a year or longer. I have read many similar posts over on thereeftank and reefcentral where some aquarists have been able to go well over a year with their URIs without sacrificing coral health, and, I read an article (somewhere ) that stated that they should be good up to two years. The main thing is to keep an eye open for any signs of deterioration such as darkening, clear or discolored spots on the bulbs, and, close observation of the corals to determine if your bulbs are still functioning optimally. If in doubt, change them out.

 

[Panagiotakis]

Hi Jana.

Fluro bulbs should last approx 6 months.If you have an unexplained algal bloom, then it could be time to replace the bulbs.Stagger replacing them, so that they don`t all have to be replaced at once :light intensity should be slowly brought back to what it should,secondly the cost to change them all at once.
With a black marker write the date on the end of the tubes, this should help you remember when they are due for replacement.

 

[SPC]

I change my URI bulbs that are run on Ice Cap ballast every 9 months.
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

I change once a year and mine are on for 12 hours a day. I'm on 10 months now and my specimens are lookin great.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm with steve. Change em' after 9 months to be safe.

And do change them one a time. Change one every few days until there all replaced!

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Same here, URI bulbs running on an Icecap 660 12 hours a day get changed every 9 months.