# 6000 hours - when to change



## newbie314 (Mar 2, 2007)

I had a compact flor. bulb by eclipse 10W at 5500K.
It stated 6000 hr operation.
I assume that is sometype of statistical number.
When should one change the bulb. When is 1/2 power (1/2 power of wanted spectrum).
6000 hours is ideally about 1year + 130 days at about 12hrs/day.

I changed it after a year since I noticed a reduction in plant growth. The tank is the 2.5gallon el natural so the W/gallon was a little high to begin with, but worked fine.


----------



## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

Corallife says to change every 6 months to a year, depending on how long your keep your lights on. They really do loose their power.


----------



## newbie314 (Mar 2, 2007)

I guess what I find annoying is that they say 6000hr on the box and it's an aquarium bulb.
I have too much light for the 2.5g anyway so it should be fine.
As for my 20g-long, I have summer light for the 6-12months of the bulb. I'll be changing at the next equinox.


----------



## houseofcards (Feb 16, 2005)

my personal opinion is whatever the manuf. says just double it to be on the safe side. Obviously they're running a business and they want you to buy bulbs. It's kinda like when you do the laundry, I put 1/4 of the recommended dose of detergent in. Guess what, my clothes still come out clean and smell good :heh:


----------



## mayor79 (Apr 5, 2008)

Actually the average life (6000 hours) has absolutely nothing to do with trying to sell more lamps. Its a study done with that particular lamp to determine on average how long they last. What it means is that in a sample of "x" number of lamps, half of them burned out at or around 6000 hours. Thats all.

Now what that means for the spectrum I'm not sure.

-Mike


----------



## newbie314 (Mar 2, 2007)

Hmm, that is interesting. They don't state that is average life, just the lifetime.
Would that be considered the half life?


----------



## mayor79 (Apr 5, 2008)

That would be the average life of the lamp (or the half life as you stated). No one can exactly predict when a lamp will fail. If you've had it running an average of 12 hours/day for a year then your getting close to your 6000 hours, I'd say replace the lamp

(That reminds me....I need to get new lamps for my tank)

-Mike


----------



## newbie314 (Mar 2, 2007)

I had replaced it already.
The tank is small so I could handle the lower light level.
I was just feeling a little guilty in replacing it before 6000hours


----------

