I'm getting ready to replace the bulbs over my 120g. I've got 2- 250W HQI's and 2- 110W VHO actinics. Not sure how far gone they are, but when I got the tank from Joe, he suggested it was probably time to change them. In the past, on my nano running flouros, I would have just replaced all the bulbs and raised the canopy up about 8 inches or so, lowering gradually over the next week. What do you guys do when you swap out bulbs in these MH systems? Not sure if I want to prop up the canopy over the 120. I tend to knock stuff over a lot. Maybe just adjust the lighting ON time down to 1/2 to 2/3rds normal, then increase it over a week or so?
You can reduce it some if you see any reaction, I just replaced my 8 T5's and 1-250 HQI MH and haven't changed anything and everything is doing fine. The actnics especially you needn't worry about as they don't have hardly any penetration value, they are just there for our viewing pleasure. The main reason we change bulbs is the spectrum well start going to red as thet age and that promotes algae and plant growth. As for brightness, I don't think there is that much difference. I have never changed ny light times on any bulb changes. Most people change their florences out 6 to 12 months, I change mine out every 9 mos. The MH's can go up to 18 mos. if you buy a good brand, I run either Hamiltons or Ushios and run the 18 months. Some people do cut back times and some others don't change all of them at once, maybe half then a week later the other half. I have never found it to be an issue.
Muchas gracias. I bought some XM HQI's. A lot of people seem to like them. Probably should have asked around here first, but the money was burning a hole in my pocket. That's been happening a lot since I got this tank.
reefer, XM's are good bulbs. grimmet swears by them and his tank looks great. I plan on either running ushios or xm's in my new tank. Although I do like the colors from the reeflux bulbs too. I think they are all good as long as you don't buy the .99 cent bulbs off ebay and who knows, they may be good too.
Reeformadness, Which color temp XM bulb did you purchase. I have 10k on my 90 gallon and 15k on my frag tank and I really like them but I haven't tried the 20k yet and Kinda want to see what they would look like before I purchase bulbs for my 240 that I am getting started.
I got the 10K since I'm also running 2 VHO actinic tubes. I do like the look of the 15K, at least in the pictures I've seen, so I thought about them a bit.
That was what finally pushed me to the 10K's over the 15K. I've no idea how much difference there is in growth rate, but I figured most of the corals you commonly find nowadays are small frags and need to grow out, so might as well stay closer to the faster growth side of the spectrum. Back when I had my nano, I don't think even 10K where available, not to mention 15 or 20K.
If it's growth you're looking for then 6000k to 10000k are the bulbs to choose. From what I've read 6500k is the optimal. The only thing is you give up color for growth. I've changed the bulbs in one of the frag tanks to 4 - Giesemann AquaBlue + (60/40 - 10,000k/20,000k) and 4 - Actinic + (60/40 - AquaBlue +/Pure Actinic). This seems to give me some of the growth with the adition of color. Good for SPS. Trying to find a happy medium. The other side has 4 - 6,000k (Midday) and 4 - Pure Actinic. Great growth, but lacking in color. Good for softies, LPS, and Zoos.
