My 250 W,10,000K Metal Halides are pushing 1.5 years old now. So from what I have read this is about the time to possibly replace them.
Also from what I have read is that the reason for replacing them is the lights gradually shift from the blue spectrum to the red, and also intensity is lower. My lights still seem very bright.
I am Canadian and the price I can find online here is 145 dollars per bulb. So that is not a small chunk of change, although I have thousands stuck into my reef tank.
I have never found any information on a simple way of testing bulbs to see if they are still putting out a suitable colour. So that is my question for all the smart ones out there. I believe I should have a few heads scratching on this one. So any info on this would be appreciated. Also how would one know if the bulb one purchases is already used, or even yet not emitting the right colour.
So to sum it all up.
A: Should I just run my bulbs longer?
B: Should I just go out and purchase new bulbs?
C: Is there a simple way to test my bulbs?
Also from what I have read is that the reason for replacing them is the lights gradually shift from the blue spectrum to the red, and also intensity is lower. My lights still seem very bright.
I am Canadian and the price I can find online here is 145 dollars per bulb. So that is not a small chunk of change, although I have thousands stuck into my reef tank.
I have never found any information on a simple way of testing bulbs to see if they are still putting out a suitable colour. So that is my question for all the smart ones out there. I believe I should have a few heads scratching on this one. So any info on this would be appreciated. Also how would one know if the bulb one purchases is already used, or even yet not emitting the right colour.
So to sum it all up.
A: Should I just run my bulbs longer?
B: Should I just go out and purchase new bulbs?
C: Is there a simple way to test my bulbs?
