CF bulb failure mode?

Jeff Dantzler wrote:
snip
I was lazy, cheap, and somewhat curious how long the bulb would last and
how it would die. I was just a little surprised that the bulb would
completely refuse to start and curious what the mode of failure was.
Thanks for the input.

Typical mode of death for regular fluorescents is to blink rapidly a day
or two before they die completely. Then they will refuse to light. Some
might also just flicker for quite a long time after being turned on, but
stabilize for a while, then die completely (my bathroom ones do this).
I've only seen one CF fail, and that was a 13w porch light at my apartment
complex (so not sure how it would extend to the larger, aquaria related
bulbs). It blinked for a couple hours then went dead. Only reason I
noticed the blinking is because it was my neighbor's porch light. Usually
any time I see a flicker in a fluorescent (regular or CF) that lasts for
more than a minute after turning it on or that starts up at any time while
it is on, I figure the bulb is on its way out and replace it.