New MH bulb burn in procedure?

[eric4usa]

I'm getting my first MH bulbs soon and need to know if there's anything special I need to do when I turn them on.
I have (2) dual 175watt ballasts and the bulbs are Venture 10000k mogul base.
I seem to remember something about letting them burn non stop for like 100hrs, but not sure where I heard that.
Just don't want to mess them up the first day.
Anyone out there with MH bulbs have any advice??

 

[bigmac]

Do you have corals?

 

[kpogue]

WHAT!? In all my years of doing this I have never heard THAT one before! MH do not need to "burn in". If anything, you want acclimate your tank to the new lights by turning them on only a few hours a day then increasing the "on" time over the next week or two.
One thing you may wish to consider - never act on what you "hear", read about it first from a reliable source.

 

[eric4usa]

Ok, Thanks.
Just didn't want to kill the life of the bulbs or anything.
Wanted to make see if what I heard had any truth to it.

 

[kpogue]

Absolutely not! - you'd fry everything in the tank, except the algae.

 

[bigmac]

lol, so does that mean you have corals or you just don't see my first post cause I only have 45 of them?

 

[eric4usa]

I don't have coral, just live rock.
Figured I'd upgrade the lighting first before I bring anything more advanced into the tank.
My tank has a lot of surface area (effectively 10ft. long) and after debating many lighting options, 4 MH bulbs seemed the way to go.

 

[eric4usa]

Cool, do they start off with a wierd color or something?
What are the XM bulbs?
Are they those new fangled satelite bulbs that need a $10/month membership fee where you can choose from any spectrum of light? (bad joke )

 

[eric4usa]

Just got everything.
I hooked up just 2 of them and they're insanely bright.
I can cook all my meals on top of them they're so hot.
With 4 of them my tank's going to light up my entire block.