VHO Lighting

[JenC]

What kind of corals can be kept with VHO lighting. Plan on setting up a 40 gal breeder with all bells & whistles. Just concerned over lights.

 

[JackTheReefer]

On a 40 breeder you should be able to keep anyhting you want with VHO, on the other hand I would say VHO are outdated and a better choice would be a good T5 fixture, it would be cheaper to run and the bulb selection is great.

 

[afboundguy]

I also think you'd be better of with T5's better technology and like Jack said cheaper to run...

 

[SaltCreep]

VHO gets crazy hot too......

T5 is the way to go.....bulbs last longer.


Unless of course you have the VHO lights already.

 

[Fish Ace]

Curious are vho's still t-5 bulbs and isn't there more wattage out of vho's?

 

[afboundguy]

VHO are T12 bulbs IIRC and they are 1" in diameter... T5 bulbs are 5/12" and inch. You can overdrive T5 bulbs; a normal 54W 48" bulb can be overdriven to 80W by a special ballast for even more lighting power but you get less bulb life and more heat.

Also the Watts per gallon way of measuring the need for lighting on a tank is kind of a bad way of looking at lighting now a days. A T5 bulb with an individual reflector (what makes them so great) at 54W puts much much more light into the tank than a 48" VHO that has much more watts.

I used to have 2x96 W Power Compact lights and when I upgraded to my 4x54W T5 retro kit I was putting more than 24W's extra lighting. It's all about PAR. Hopefully this all makes sense, I'm still kinda sick and slept like crap last night so I'm a little loopy lol...

 

[Fish Ace]

So are there any opinons on the Current USA Nova Extreme Pro T5 Aquarium Lighting Fixture, 6X54 Watt, 48 inch setup. I'm currently running the pc orbit 4x65 watt setup would I see an improvement?

 

[afboundguy]

Just make sure you get a fixture with individual reflectors... They make a huge difference...

 

[MikeG]

So are there any opinons on the Current USA Nova Extreme Pro T5 Aquarium Lighting Fixture, 6X54 Watt, 48 inch setup. I'm currently running the pc orbit 4x65 watt setup would I see an improvement?

You would see a huge difference between the 2. The Nova Extreme Pro has individual reflectors getting more light into the tank as well as having more bulbs than the PC fixture.