Please don't confuse better and worse with right and wrong. If you like a whopper more than a gourmet burger from a highly rated burger restaurant, it is not wrong, but the whopper is still worse.
VHO and PC guys you need jesus. Seriously you guys are just weird. :hmm4: :lolspin:
I think that similar wattage, high quality, VHO, T5 and MH (on wide reflectors) setups all look VERY similar to nearly identical.... almost to the point where if you have a closeup of the frag, then you cannot really tell. I am not talking about bad setups like small reflector MH, horrible T5s (oddysea and the like) or VHO on tar ballasts that all will all produce so-so results. LED is the outlier among these three.
I don't see what all the fuss is about. A well lit t5ho tank with good bulbs is brighter and more vibrant.
T5 come in 60 inch length. And grow great reefs. I run 6 on a 220 and there is plenty of par plenty of spectrum and color in the corals. Not doubting vho because I used them back in the day but new reflectors make the real difference.Other than only 4 bulbs to choose from, VHO does an outstanding job. The actinic white and super actinic are so good, that they are really enough. The internal reflectors get most of the light into the tank, but I always used one big one to help a bit too. They are particularly effective on tanks over 4 feet since T5 does not come in those lengths. VHO is twice the electricity, but also twice the output as a T5 so it takes 2 T5s to equal a VHO. So in a 6 foot tank 4 72" VHO bulbs can take the place of 16 36" T5s with the same output and same electrical costs, but a fraction of the bulb cost. URI claims that their bulbs will last longer than T5 too, which they probably do. I had a GREAT reef under VHO about 15 years ago and I still have all of the stuff. People can do a LOT worse than VHO. If URI would promise to be around in 10 years, I might fire up a 6' 250 with 4 of them.
VHO is twice the electricity, but also twice the output as a T5 so it takes 2 T5s to equal a VHO. So in a 6 foot tank 4 72" VHO bulbs can take the place of 16 36" T5s with the same output and same electrical costs, but a fraction of the bulb cost. URI claims that their bulbs will last longer than T5 too, which they probably do. I had a GREAT reef under VHO about 15 years ago and I still have all of the stuff. People can do a LOT worse than VHO. If URI would promise to be around in 10 years, I might fire up a 6' 250 with 4 of them.
HO – a high output bulb of this size will chew up 54 watts of electricity per hour. But for these watts the lumen output will be about 5,000 lumens. So calculating the lumen to watt ratio, that will give the best impression about the efficiency of HO bulbs. In this instance it is 92.6 lm/w.
VHO – but a VHO bulb of the same size – 4 feet in length – will consume more watts – 95 watts to be exact – but the lumen output will be much higher too. One bulb will be able to give out 7,200 lumens. So calculating the lumen to watt ratio for this VHO bulb it would be 75.8 lm/w.
Usually VHO light ballasts need to be changed every 6 months or so, but HO fixtures in most cases don’t need to be changed or lasts for several years. This means that the VHO bulbs and fixtures need more care and therefore more money put into them. But of course it might be worth it if you want really great plants and rich yields.
so it takes 2 T5s to equal a VHO
Close. Candles. Its not quite like the ripple effect from MH, but you get this really nice flickering effect.You're all wrong. Sunlight is the only correct answer.... well, supplemented by enough blue LEDs.
:lolspin:
Phillips uses 20lbs of aluminum to remove this almost nothing heat..
Heat is removed from the back of LEDs, forward heat is very low compared to other lighting.
VHO is less efficient than HO..
Granted all generalizations..
Your links are to T5 VHO, not T12, which is what is being discussed. They are not the same thing.
When I work in my tank I can feel some heat on the diode side of the fixture. Not as hot as when I ran MH, but still something.