• Why not take a moment to introduce yourself to our members?

buff1

Experienced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
As part of my planning for a new 155 bowfront, I am trying to decide whether to use pc, vho, or regular flourescent as my supplemental lighting. I plan on have 3x250 HQI DE bulbs and I want the actinic to turn on 30 minutes before the other bulbs and 30 minutes longer to allow the tank a smoother transition from night to day. Also, from browsing the board, it also sounds like the actinic can give a nice glow to the corals. I have no experience with MH lighting yet, but I have been pleased with the pc's on my current 20 gallon mini so that is how I would lean. Some people seem to say that the vho actinics give a more pleasing blue. I also wonder if a few plain old 40w actinics would serve my purposes. Any advice from the lighting guild?
 

buff1

Experienced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Brief secondary question. Years ago, I thought I read that a VHO ballast would drive a regular output bulb to put out virtually as much light as a vho bulb. Has this been proved, disproved?
 

Todd March

Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I just recently found out that most PC bulbs that are called actinic (or 7100K) are very much strong blue bulbs, but they are brighter than the Actinic 03, and do not fluoresce your animals as well as Actinic 03 bulbs.

Phillips Actinic 03, the classic that started the actinic rage in reef aquaria, is what those of use who have long used regular flourescent or VHO, are fond of--the colors get just a wee bit crazy under Actinic 03. When you combine it with a sunlight white bulb, or better yet with halide, the wee bit of crazy bright flouresing color peeks through and makes the eyes go ZING. Reef tanks with Actinic 03 lighting are attention grabbers. Actinic 03 bulbs are not bright, even for VHO standards, but they are an intense blue that affect the colors of many life forms in reef aquaria. I truly am hooked on them.

In contrast, lots of Euorpeans do NOT use Actinic supplements and use only halide lamps for a much more natural appearance. With the advent of 12,000K, 14,000K and 20,000K halide lamps, I think the corals get all the blue light that they need and don't care one or the other about actinic supplementation. Really it's about the human eye and how you like to look at color in terms of live photosynthetic corals.

Hellolights.com is now selling a true Actinic 03 PC bulb, and they explain also about this PC "Actinic blue" situation...

I just ordered some–haven't tried them yet–but if they are true Actinic 03's, I plan on utilizing them instead of VHO's. I really like VHO's, very much, but the bulbs just don't last long enough before changing spectrum. On the otherhand, the PC's seem to last a full year, are more compact, and are just so great for smaller tanks in smaller sizes...

Honestly if it's your first real reef tank, the combo of VHO with the DE halides is great, just wonderful, and I HIGHLY recommend it (the 250 DE lamp's combine with VHO bulbs to still make a nice compact fixture); being a new reefer, you'll be willing to spend the money on more frequent bulb changes (despite what anybody tells you, if you want the BEST possible husbandry for your corals, change VHO's every 6-9 months). But after buying pricey bulbs for well over a decade now, I want 'em as cheap as I can get 'em and I want 'em to last as long as possible...!

Also–I wouldn't use regular flourescent whatsoever. Their dimness AND rapid spectrum loss is just not acceptable anymore compared to the other options (and too many corals have died under them over the years in hobbiests tanks because that's all the LFS sold, to constitute still using them). Unless of course you are NOT keeping ANY photosynthetic corals, photosynthetic anemones or photosynthetic clams. Feather dusters do great under regular flourescents. But that's about it...

Hope this helps,

Todd
 

Sponsor Reefs

We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.

Click here to sponsor $10:


Top