Used Bulbs and Coral Growth

[SLPReefer]

How much does the bulb spectrum influence coral growth. I have T5's that I got used and I was wonder how urgent it is that I get new ones. Since they were originally reef bulbs are they going to be "good enough" or does the spectrum decline enough that I will notice a significant difference with new bulbs?

[sea monkey]

being as i gave ya the bulbs , i will chime in.

some of them are hardly used and some are near the end of their life span and i had no idea which were which : )

best bet would be to look at the ends and measure how long the dark spot is , my guess is the longer the dark edge the older the bulb is .

if you don't notice them being dim and you dont have extremely demanding corals i would call them "good enough" you might how bright the tank is and the different colors with new bulbs .