Vho Owners

[NiTr0x911]

How often do You change your Bulbs. I've read some people say no more than 9 months and they need to be changed while others say they get 1 yr to 15 months wityh no harmful affects to corals. I know all this depends on how long you run your lights each day. Just trying to get a rough idea .

[Reef_bones]

No more than 9 months... after 6months I see a drop in coral growth and after 9 I see a drop in coloration and rise in nuisance algae.

[JRoweNole]

With my IceCap 660 ballast I change out once a year. I believe IceCap states that lamps will last a little longer with their ballast, but I change every 12 months.

[outy]

i think you can go longer with atinics then 9 months but 1 year is a good rough guestamate for all bulbs, depends on the bulb and how fast the brightness goes away, compare it to a new bulb sometime it will amaze you how dim an old bulb gets

[swashbuckler]

VHO's last surprisingly long- (talking about UV lighting Co's) i replaced mine at 6 months- the old one was just as bright as the new one, just a tad bit less blue.

[Reef_bones]

that is right that the actinics last alittle longer, but I can tell you the 50/50 bulbs are junk at the 9 month mark. I think that is also right about the icecap balast extending the life. Its something about the start.

[RicGio]

I'm running 2 URI bulbs on an icecap. I change mine out every year. I went 18 months once and started getting an algae bloom. My frogspawn stopped growing as rapidly as it had been, also.

[lastin1]

I ran one URI aqua-d blue, one URI aqua-d white and two daylight deluxe bulbs on an icecap 660. After about a year, one of the daylight deluxe burnt out so I replaced both with new aqua-d bulbs. There was almost no difference between old and new bulb. Right now I'm running the original 3 and replaced the burned out one with an aqua-d blue. It's running for about 2 years now at 10 hours per day and everything seems to be fine. I plan to replace bulbs as it burns out. Icecap Inc. has stated that fluorescents do not shift color. It only gets dimmer with use.

[R33f3r]

9 months max on VHO. They begin to dim and lose par.