How do you know if your bulbs are too old???

[stingers81]

HEy guys
As the title says.....I have 2x48W flourescent lights that I bought second hand and I am not sure if they are ready to be changed or not....is there a way of knowing???

also while im at it....I know my lights are pretty pathetic right now but Im starting a FOWLR tank and Im too broke to caugh up $400 for lights now....anyways....Are there any cheap alternatives that i could take to make my lights better?? something thats not going to cost me more then $50....i will be upgrading to reef later once im a bit richer :bum:

any help would be nice

Cheers!
Thomas

 

[enforcer8621]

Jebo makes a decent light for the money. You can find them here. If anything there is too much, you can use a cheap shoplight. I used one when I first got started and had a FOWLR, but that all changed soon. I now have 720 watts of light on a 75gallon tank.

 

[ReefLife1680]

i think the only way you can determine whether to replace the bulbs is if you measure the spectrum .. otherwise do what everone else does .. replace every so often .. depending on bulbs type, use etc. 4-6 months?

 

[Zoalander]

pc 6 months, vho's 8 months, mh 1 year. Completely my opinion.

 

[stingers81]

ok this is gonna make me look like a ******* but are flourescent bulbs PC bulbs??? I have the 48" flourescent light fixture and if I was to get bulbs....which one should I get for like $50 for 2...so $25 each

and which type....PC??

 

[enforcer8621]

pc bulbs are flourescent, but they are not typical bulbs. pc are power compact bulbs and are in a tight U shape and all the prongs are on one end. if you have 48" bulbs you either have normal output (NO) or maybe very high output (VHO). If you look at your old bulbs you will see the wattage. If it's 40W, then it's NO, if it's 110W you have VHO (the best type of flourescent IMO)

 

[HappyReefer2]

Just a note, you can't cut corners on lighting when it comes to Reef tank. But if only for fish... you can get away with murder.