replacing old T5 bulbs with new ones....

[SPotter]

I am nervous about bleaching out my sps when I change my bulbs. Should decrease the number of hours my daylight bulbs are on and slowly ramp them up or does it not matter with T5?

 

[fcmatt]

when was the last time you changed bulbs? less then 1 year? 2 years ago?

if you are worried about too much power.. i would just run them a couple of hours
less for the first week while keeping an eye on the tank. then increase it an hour
and run for a week.. etc.. until you are back to normal time wise.

or raise the lights up.. and lower slowly. or use sheets of screen to block some light...

 

[SPotter]

bulbs are 8 months old and i think i will reduce the daylights a couple of hours and then start increasing them after a week.

 

[Chyendra]

I've never had T5's before... but intuitively speaking, it seems like it would make sense to change 1-2 bulbs at a time, instead of all of them at once, for a smoother transition (or raise them up higher)

 

[Toadally]

I agree with changing them out slowly. I would change one bulb each week until all are changed. I have an ATI Sunpower and that's the way I do it. I change them at about 9months.