Bryan: Longivety of the Radium bulbs were a concern to us and after running Radiums on Blueline E-Ballasts for 12 hours a day we found that although the corals kept growing well, the colour on some of the corals would fade at the nine month mark. The colour did not disappear, it just wasn't as vibrant. We did not know how long to run them for initially, but now we realize that 10 hours would have been fine. Therefore on Blueline E ballasts the Radiums should last 12 months and on PFO HQI ballasts every 9 months as they are obviously being over driven (longer if you are not concerned over minor color loss). We have been experimenting for three months now with supplementing 250W Iwaski's. We run the Iwaski's from 11-6, Radiums 5-10 to save on bulb changes (hopefully) and hydro costs. We'll know the results in a year or so, but we're hoping that the bulbs will last 16 months with this configuration and colour does not seem to have been sacrificed. This is just our experience and YMMV.
Spikehs: Here's a closer shot of our rose [img]smile.gif[/img]
[ 09 August 2002, 22:21: Message edited by: jb1974 ]