when do you change your light bulbs

[Nanodoc]

I have T5 HO bulbs for 6 months now, and I think my coral growth has slowed and the coloration has a more bleached appearance. The possibility of spectrum change might be the cause, and I went ahead and ordered new bulbs.
It is recommended to change these bulbs every 5-6 months, but their average lifespan is 20.000 hours, that is 5-6 years 12 hours/day.
it seems such a waste to change it so often and toxic waste accumulation.
what does everybody else do, wait until the burn out or change as recommended?
I will go ahead and change it and see if there is any change in color and report back..

[mr.badams]

Im running t5's also. I used to change them every three months or so bc i am running 2 of them on a icecap 430 and 3 of them on a icecap 660. The bulbs have proper cooling, 3 80 cfm coolermaster pc fans at each ends of the bulbs. It has now been 6 months or so since my last bulb
change and everything seemed to be fine. My tank was mostly sps. I wish i could get a par meter

[Nanodoc]

I changed my T5s out, and I saw a noticable difference in brightness with the new bulbs ,without PAR meter it's subjective . If I can see it, my corals should definitely feel it!
Mostly SPS too.
2 new acros from BSL and a hot pink bubbletip my wife thinks is sooooo cute!

[mr.badams]

Haha... Sounds like my wife! I went to BSL yesterday and some of the acros Dave has are amazing! The size of them alone are stunning for the price