Bulb changes

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

I have been running mine for 2 years between changes. never had coral stop growing or algae problems with this last set but visualy they needed to be changed.

I find this to be the case with my bulb swap outs too. So far, I've always replaced my bulbs before they've hit 10,000 burn hours, which, depending on the photoperiod can be as long as two years. But I've noticed, this is just subjective mind you, that when I have new bulbs, I usually think "wow that's bright" when I look at my tank, but I find myself not thinking this comment after about a year ... So that's why I use 12 months as my general rule-of-thumb ... Not so much that I've noticed coral growth stopping but that I want to have the "gee whiz" factor when I look at the tanks.