T5 bulb lifespan???

[john.m.cole3]

I run my bulbs for 6 hours a day w/ a 1 hr ramp up/down. Is there a total amount of hours you can get out of each bulb? I see where people change them anywhere from 6 months to a year.

 

[Mrx7899]

When I was running t5s I replaced them every year

 

[john.m.cole3]

When I was running t5s I replaced them every year

did you replace them just cuz that's what you've heard before or was there a reason like algae outbreak or coral losing color to make you change your bulbs?

 

[Mrx7899]

No didn't notice anything like that's just changed them out all the research I did said they last about a year on average. I am sure you could push them a little longer if you wanted to.

 

[nemo1017]

Yearly for me. Just a tip: Write the date on the bulb so you know when you installed them and change them one or two at a time so as to not potentially shock your corals.

 

[john.m.cole3]

Yearly for me. Just a tip: Write the date on the bulb so you know when you installed them and change them one or two at a time so as to not potentially shock your corals.

good tip, thanks man!

 

[mik]

Are used to change mine every six to seven months just to be on the safe side and it's always good to do two bulbs at a time

 

[Sabellafella]

I run my bulbs for 6 hours a day w/ a 1 hr ramp up/down. Is there a total amount of hours you can get out of each bulb? I see where people change them anywhere from 6 months to a year.

Imo my bulbs that are on 10 hours everyday, i change every 7-8 months. Ones that are.on 7 ill change the following months after

 

[john.m.cole3]

Ok, so I just hit the 8 month mark on mine. I swapped out 2 4 months ago to get the colors I wanted, but I'll prob just change em all since I didn't keep track of what was new. I've heard @Sabellafella say to change one a week. I think I'll start the process this weekend. I have the dimmable T5. I'm guessing I should just take the ramp up/down feature off for the first 50 hours?

 

[Sabellafella]

Ok, so I just hit the 8 month mark on mine. I swapped out 2 4 months ago to get the colors I wanted, but I'll prob just change em all since I didn't keep track of what was new. I've heard @Sabellafella say to change one a week. I think I'll start the process this weekend. I have the dimmable T5. I'm guessing I should just take the ramp up/down feature off for the first 50 hours?

Dude i litterally bought another powermodule, 1 as a backup, and 2 just to burn bulbs in. You could also get a 30 dollar homedepot fixture to hardwire for bulb burnin. Honestly, i always used t5s. I never in my life realized how much a big difference it makes the month you switch them out. With a par meter, the bulbs imo are dead after 6 months. Par declines from the day you put the bulb in. Theyll reach a point where par isnt declining anymore and thats when they should be changed. Everyone that changes bulbs with the dimmable will run manual 100% on and off. But if you change 1 bulb a week, youll have do this for 2 months. For some reason, i always took my time changing bulbs. But my corals benefit undeniably better, so ill prob change out 2 at a time for now on.

 

[cloak]

I've only used the actinics in combination with a MH bulb, but I used to replace them every year without any problems. Nobody was complaining...

 

[kattz]

Ok, so I just hit the 8 month mark on mine. I swapped out 2 4 months ago to get the colors I wanted, but I'll prob just change em all since I didn't keep track of what was new. I've heard @Sabellafella say to change one a week. I think I'll start the process this weekend. I have the dimmable T5. I'm guessing I should just take the ramp up/down feature off for the first 50 hours?

No reason to turn off the ramp feature. Burn-in is not required.

Kev

 

[john.m.cole3]

No reason to turn off the ramp feature. Burn-in is not required.

Kev

really? even the ATI fixture says to burn in for 50 hours. I'm all for it, but this is the first I've heard of skipping the burn in period.

 

[ReefJunky]

To kattz: I'm curious, you say that there's no reason to turn off the dimming feature and that no burn-in is required for new T5 bulbs. My question for you is, why does ATI strongly recommend a 50-hour burn in period at 100% brightness before using the dimming feature? I've seen several explanations, in different lighting forums, from ATI explaining why new T5 bulbs require a 50-hour burn-in period at 100% before they are used in a dimming program. ATI's explanation sounds very logical/plausible to me and from what I observe when burning-in new T5 bulbs... ATI's advice is correct. I would hope that the folks at ATI know what they are talking about. Can you explain why there's no reason to turn off the ramp feature and burn-in is not required for new T5 bulbs?

 

[ReefJunky]

From the R2R thread: Proper Times and Techniques for Replacing your T5 Bulbs

gdemos from ATI wrote: "dimming the bulb right away will reduce the usable lifespan of the bulb. The burn in period allows the phosphors and mercury to properly distribute throughout the whole tube. Dimming the lamp prematurely can disrupt this process."

This sounds like a good explanation to me and from my past observation of burning in many 250 watt HQI MH bulbs... it sounds spot on!

 

[john.m.cole3]

Yeah man that's all I've ever heard. Thanks for the quote from ATI.

 

[kattz]

really? even the ATI fixture says to burn in for 50 hours. I'm all for it, but this is the first I've heard of skipping the burn in period.

To kattz: I'm curious, you say that there's no reason to turn off the dimming feature and that no burn-in is required for new T5 bulbs. My question for you is, why does ATI strongly recommend a 50-hour burn in period at 100% brightness before using the dimming feature? I've seen several explanations, in different lighting forums, from ATI explaining why new T5 bulbs require a 50-hour burn-in period at 100% before they are used in a dimming program. ATI's explanation sounds very logical/plausible to me and from what I observe when burning-in new T5 bulbs... ATI's advice is correct. I would hope that the folks at ATI know what they are talking about. Can you explain why there's no reason to turn off the ramp feature and burn-in is not required for new T5 bulbs?

Most automotive manuals say to change the oil every 7500 miles and I don't do that either. It's difficult for typical users to do the burn in without a separate fixture, and my experience says, based on my results, it's not needed. If you can do the burn in, no worries.

My experience is that, over the course of many bulbs and changes, it makes no difference to PAR. The first time I used my ATI Sunpower I did the 50 hr burn in. I measured the PAR with the new bulbs before burning in and after the 50 hours - no difference. After 1 yr, I changed my bulbs, recording the PAR at the end of the year. It was a less than 2% change. For the next set of bulbs, I eliminated the burn-in and just started them up in the program. The PAR at the beginning and at the end of the 2nd year of bulb life, there was no difference over the 1-2% drop already seen in the first round of bulbs that had a burn-in cycle. Changing one bulb every 5-7 days, yes, that's sound advice. Burn in, you have a choice.

Before breaking it down to move, I checked the PAR of my frag tank, which had 4 year old 24" ATI bulbs in a ATI Sunpower fixture running the same program as my main tank. They were four years old and the total PAR had dropped 3% over brand new bulbs with no burn in time.

Edit: I have never had a bulb fail early due to no burn-in, either...

Kev

 

[gus6464]

PAR drop is not why you change bulbs out once a year. You change them out because of the spectrum shift that occurs once bulbs get older. As bulbs get older the spectrum will shift to heavy red. Well all know what happens when there's too much red light on tanks.

 

[Sabellafella]

Most automotive manuals say to change the oil every 7500 miles and I don't do that either. It's difficult for typical users to do the burn in without a separate fixture, and my experience says, based on my results, it's not needed. If you can do the burn in, no worries.

My experience is that, over the course of many bulbs and changes, it makes no difference to PAR. The first time I used my ATI Sunpower I did the 50 hr burn in. I measured the PAR with the new bulbs before burning in and after the 50 hours - no difference. After 1 yr, I changed my bulbs, recording the PAR at the end of the year. It was a less than 2% change. For the next set of bulbs, I eliminated the burn-in and just started them up in the program. The PAR at the beginning and at the end of the 2nd year of bulb life, there was no difference over the 1-2% drop already seen in the first round of bulbs that had a burn-in cycle. Changing one bulb every 5-7 days, yes, that's sound advice. Burn in, you have a choice.

Before breaking it down to move, I checked the PAR of my frag tank, which had 4 year old 24" ATI bulbs in a ATI Sunpower fixture running the same program as my main tank. They were four years old and the total PAR had dropped 3% over brand new bulbs with no burn in time.

Edit: I have never had a bulb fail early due to no burn-in, either...

Kev

Hmm, my last 3 bulb changes par was reduced overall about 30% with ati bulbs, after 5 months. I test them all brand new and after burn it and my readings were substantially lower then after. Also not running carbon in my tank for over 2 months makes a 20% par reduction. All the times i tested my tank with a par instrument, my water was crystal clear. Also your bulbs have to be burt in to distribute the phosphor evenly, also some other reasons that im not sure at the moment. Basically you have to burn them in or there useless, theyll flicker and color is different if you dont.

 

[john.m.cole3]

I put my timer to come ON at 1400 and be 100% at 1401. They run 100% til 2100 then OFF at 2101. I'm going to run this to get 7 hours of burn in each day. Add a new bulb every week for 6 weeks.