Old Fluorescent Lights

[Cajun Charlie]

My old Italian Tropuquarium 88 made by Askoll S.P.A. and bought overseas has a hood with a built-in fluorescent fixture that takes two 24” 20W bulbs. I‘be been running ZooMed Ocean Sun 10,000K bulbs for several years now, and I’m wondering if it’s time to replace them. My heavily planted tank is generally happy, but 3 of my 4 swords are getting holy leaves while sprouting lots of babies. Their roots are in hardware store gravel on an undergravel filter with a power head, full of natural fertilizer. Distance from bottom of bulbs to top of gravel is 18”. First photo is holy leaves if you can see past the begging platies; second was after about 3 months without pruning. I’m very much into low maintenance and use no root tabs and very little Flourish at infrequent water changes. The only thing I would consider changing is bulbs, and only if necessary, since they are older than I can remember, having been in storage 2012-2021, run 2007-2012, stored some years before that… They run 7:00 am to 9:30 pm. Do these fluorescent bulbs wear out enough to need replacement?

[lefty o]

if the plants are staying healthy, and you are happy with how they look, id not change them out. flourescent tubes do start degrading the second they are turned on, so its something to watch, as they do lose their brightness, and color.