mh bulb life span?

[sebae0]

how often should mh light bulbs be changed on a reef tank? thank in advance.

 

[crazyreefnut]

6-8 months

 

[banshee]

My 250 watt Ushio bulbs say that they are good for 8000 hours. So if I run them for 10-12 hours a day, isn't that something like 1 year and a half?

 

[dad]

Actually as a rule of thumb. change them once a year.
There are too many factors involved. The hours they are on, the correct voltages, temp, ballast, etc

 

[katara]

20k's should be changed every 6 months..10k's should be good for 1 year.

 

[m.rogers]

i have read it has alot to do with who makes the bulb something like 10k of this make last this long and it will last this long if it is made but this com.

 

[spsfreak100]

What type of bulb are you running and which ballast are you using? As Gina stated, the 20,000k bulbs generally last around 6 months and 10,000k bulbs last around 10-14 months, depending upon the ballast being used.
Graham

 

[nm reef]

Depends on the type of bulb and the ballast. The information I have indicates I can run my 250 watt Iwasakis(65k's) on a PFO ballast for about a year....daily I plan to have them on for 9 hours. My plan is to change them out around the 12 month mark.:thinking:
Visit NM Reef

 

[sebae0]

i have 2 250w 6500k iwasakis on a pfo and 1 175w 10k ushio on a magnectic ballast, i was going to go a year do you think thats ok?