Giesman T-5

[fishchef]

Last year I put togther a system with Current hoods and Giesmann bulbs. I just had a single bulb burn out after 8 months. This caused a series of bulbs not to function,
With all the light sensitive life in my tank I'm concerned. Is it normal for the bulbs just to suddenly burn and do they loose PAR before this occurance? Actually I prefer this since some bulbs burn long after their usefulness. I was told that they would last maybe 18 months. So is this normal?

 

[ssamick]

In my own experience over the last two or so years with t-5's I would say this is not normal. I wonder if you just got a bad bulb. Some sort of manufacturing error that just finally gave out. Is the bulb trying to fire at all? I have used Giesmans from the beginning and have not had that problem. I change mine out at about the 14 month mark. How many ballast run your lights?

 

[fishchef]

I was wondering what the indication was going to be to replace them. 14 months sounds pretty good after all the trouble I went through with PC. Everything else looks good. I did notice some Rics having issues and it could of been this bad bulb. I did change some bulbs randomly and it should be fun keeping track of it all. There's two 36" hoods with four bulbs each. A single ballast runs two bulbs.