I am setting up a 90 gal. tank. It came with a canopy with a retrofit VHO fiture to hold 4 110 watt bulbs. I don't hear much about VHO's. Someone told me that it is old technology?? Will these get me started for a while till I get a better lights?
VHO lighting
- Thread starter Tom K
- Start date
- Location
- NY
Tom, the VHO's will be fine to get you started. You won't have great success with the more difficult corals, LPS and SPS. But softies and leathers should be fine. Not sure if you mean just cycling your tank with the VHO's, because that would absolutely be fine too.
Russ
Russ
I beg to differ the guy that got me into reef tanks has the same thing 440 watts of VHO and he can keep and grow anything he wants I get alot of my sps from him and mine do great and I have HO T-5s
- Location
- poughquag, ny
t5 isnt vho, i have both, i use the vho for my antic's though. and unless as stated you plan to do or go sps i would suggest at the time to upgrade light's. if you just plan fish only or zoa's, leathers and such the vho will be fine
- Location
- NY
Quite a bit of missing information here. What size tank does your friend have? Is his tank 24" deep as well? VHO's are great for actinic lighting. As for the primary lighting in a shallow tank they can work too. I wouldn't even use HO T5's (of which I have been running for over four years btw) on a tank deeper than 20", so using VHO's on a tank even 20" deep is very restrictive. It would push the reefkeeper to position all the light demanding animals in the very top section of the tank, whereas with the appropriate MH lighting the high light demanding animals can be kept on the sandbed if you wanted to aquascape that way.
Guess there are differences of opinion.
swimmer
- Location
- poughquag, ny
lol russ i was going to say the same thing but not up to debate what i am not using, because 1 person may get away with something does not me you or anyone else will, and try keeping a purple monster or some of the other hard to keep sps under vho will = a white coral
- Location
- NY
Exactly Rick. That's why a blanket statement that you can keep anything under VHO lighting is inappropriate. You never know who is reading the suggestion or recommendation.
swimmer
- Location
- NY
No worries. His tank is actually a 90g, so it's 4" deeper than the 75g. Makes the situation even worse for the VHO's.
Having conversations like this is a good thing. It can bring certain arguments to the table that someone might overlook. Nice to see nobody here took anything personal. :tongue1: Never meant that way
swimmer
I am more confused than ever... I have 4 VHO 110 watt = 440 watt
if I were to use 8 T5's @ 54 watts =432 watts
why are not 1/half as many VHO's the same as 8 T5's
or if I use 2 250w MH =500watt
do use gauge the light output in something else than watts?????????????
whaT LIGHTING SHOULD i USE FOR A 90 GAL?????????
if I were to use 8 T5's @ 54 watts =432 watts
why are not 1/half as many VHO's the same as 8 T5's
or if I use 2 250w MH =500watt
do use gauge the light output in something else than watts?????????????
whaT LIGHTING SHOULD i USE FOR A 90 GAL?????????
I think My SPS and LPS would all disagree with you. I run 440W vho on an icecap ballast and couldnt be happier with the results for acropora, montipora, poccilopora, blastomussa, duncans, and many more. VHO's are prefectly suitable for a permanent fixture over an SPS or LPS dominated tank. my corals show better color that some people local who run MH lighting, while the par rating is not as high you get a more even l8ight intesity through out the tank where as halides are really only "great" directly centered under the bulb while there intesity fade rteally fast off to the sides limiting their usefullness especially since they burn through electricity so fast as well as being enourmus wasters of energy in the form of heat.
actually watts is the least reliable way to measure how effective a light is. wats only shows how much energy is consumed in the operqation of a device it has absolutly nothing to do with the ending output. Par (intenssity) is the more accurate way to measure a lights effectiveness a simple Lux meter can show how effective different lights are at different depths. honestly 4 inches of depth difference isnt going to change all taht much, but if you move 4 inches side ways out from under the center of a halide you expirience serious par drop off. in my opinion you can't go wrong using any of these (8 bulb t-5 ho set up, 2 x 250halides with either VHO or PC actinics, or 4x 110W VHO). I would not reccomend power compacts for a 90g.
- Location
- Marine Park
One of my top 5 favorite tanks is a 120 gallon sps tank (with clams) that is VHO lit only.
not to confuse the issue even more but 2 x 250 w halides doesnt really equal 500 watts over the entire tank it is in reality 250w over the focal point under the bulb fading to the perifials, same for my VHOs if you break it into 2 foot sections I actually only have about 220 w for every 2 feet because the light out put from the far bulb (or far end of the bulb in my case) doesn not reach to the opposite side of the tank.
- Location
- Marine Park
Watts per gallon is not a good measurement because it doesn't take into account the depth off the tank. For example a 20 gallon high would need more light to penetrate to the bottom than a 20 gallon long would.
It has more to do with depth of the tank than volume of water. That being said lighting is not the be all end all. Science has shown that VHO doesn't penetrate as deep as MH does yet there are many fantastic VHO sps tanks. If you have VHO right now why not use it? It won't cost you anything and if the person you bought it from was using it and successfully why change it?
If it aint broke don't fix it.
It has more to do with depth of the tank than volume of water. That being said lighting is not the be all end all. Science has shown that VHO doesn't penetrate as deep as MH does yet there are many fantastic VHO sps tanks. If you have VHO right now why not use it? It won't cost you anything and if the person you bought it from was using it and successfully why change it?
If it aint broke don't fix it.
I never had vho but am thinking of changing my pc lights for vho because the price for vho is so much cheaper , I also have mh but one of the most amazing tanks i ever saw was a guy in long island from RC his name I think was mjny he had a 180 with 6 72 inch vho the colors and the corals in his tank were gorgeous and he had sps in the sand bed
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