T5 bulbs

[treesprite]

Main question is: is changing blues/purples/pinks after a given time as crucial as whites/daylights? 

 

It has been almost 3 years since I had a 48" tank running. I need to put bulbs in an 8 bulb fixture. Can't really afford new bulbs right now. I found 24 bulbs between 3 fixtures and a box of random bulbs in the junk room (all different brands), and tested them all. I don't know how long they were used, so I had to judge by the color when lit. I'm tossing at least 11 of them - 10  are yellow-looking daylights, and the 11th was crazily close to red when lit. That leaves me with 13 bulbs, only 2 of which are daylights. The rest are blues, purples, and one pink. There are 3 blues and one 10k in a fixture from which I can't remove the shield so the bulbs are staying there, but it's okay since I'm using that fixture until my Tek light is up (those bulbs are the only ones that I know for a certain were only used a few months). The bulbs I put in the Tek light are 4 blues, 2 purples, a pink, and one questionable 10k. There is a 3rd purple with no purpose. There are actually 2 more bulbs (making 26 bulbs not 24) which I found after I tested and sorted the others, but I'm not going to bother with them right now, I'm tired of playing with bulbs (one is in a single-bulb fixture in the junk room, the other was in a corner behind some other junk all by itself and I have no idea what it was doing there or for how long).

 

I really can't be buying new bulbs right now. I've helped other people recently to the point of being temporarily broke myself, so there won't be any new bulbs until probably January. I did want to go heavy on actinics, but I think having only one day is kind of over-doing the idea. I am really hoping that the useful life of blues and purples can actually be longer than daylights - I'm just thinking, with as little as I know about light, that even if the spectrum is shifted, it might make the actinics less blue but at least won't make them yellow and red  (I admit it, I am really ignorant about light stuff).

 

Any thoughts on this would be appreciated!

 

BTW, does anyone know if HD or MOMs take this type of bulb?

Edited November 15, 2019 by treesprite

[wildcrazyjoker81]

FWIW BRS did a study and found out the bulb life of certain T5s like ATI Blue+ is drastically longer than we initially thought in the hobby. So that leads me to believe the actinic blue bulbs will be a much safer bet if you are unsure of the lifespan used already in the bulbs. The pink/purple/white may lead to a nasty algae outbreak if they have shifted color enough to feed algae growth over coral growth. I personally would just run the blues and kind of suck up the color until you can afford new bulbs. Also keep in mind those bulbs lose PAR as they age, so they will not be anywhere as strong as new bulbs when you do the shift to the new fixture. I have no clue what a HD or MOMs is to even have an opinion or guess on it.

[BtmDweller]

If there’s any chance you can make it to Manassas or Dulles I have sine free 48” bulbs. Used under a year from another member.

 

Last bulb switch for two systems 48” and 72” with T5/MH Hamilton was a little over the 1 year mark with ATI blue plus/actinic. Definitely a noticeable difference in light intensity when switching the T5bulbs. MH were off when comparing this.

 

 

 

[treesprite]

Btmdweller, thank you. I wish I could come out there, but it's too far for as busy as I am.

 

Wildcrazyjoker81, thanks for the information! I'm actually not particularly fond of pinks and purples, I guess I just didn't realize what exactly I was ordering. Those bulbs probably were used less than the other.

 

I have a decent led fixture I could use for a while, but would still have to supplement it with something because  it isn't enough for this size of a tank (it was given to me with the 50 I was using, which is only a 30" tank). I actually had trouble adjusting it with the dials and burned corals, then I didn't trust it and stopped using it.

Edited November 15, 2019 by treesprite