Feedback
- Thread starter AJ69
- Start date
cschweitzer
New member
VHO, VHO, VHO...everybody chant with me!!
My personal opinion is that this is the best substitute and will be what I use for my 180 when/if I ever get it set up.
Many people will swear by t-5 HO lights, some may even say PC, but I love VHO and I have heard a few(not many, but enough) negative feedback from HO's.
Benefits:
Higher wattage(than t-5's)
Lights run cooler(than PC's MH's)
Internal reflectors, so no need for separate, single reflectors(Like t-5's)
Run for long time(Longer than MH, PC)
True actinic
Dimmable
Fairly inexpensive option
Downsides:
Only one I know is that they produce a little more heat than t-5's and need more ballast power because of the higher wattage
My personal opinion is that this is the best substitute and will be what I use for my 180 when/if I ever get it set up.
Many people will swear by t-5 HO lights, some may even say PC, but I love VHO and I have heard a few(not many, but enough) negative feedback from HO's.
Benefits:
Higher wattage(than t-5's)
Lights run cooler(than PC's MH's)
Internal reflectors, so no need for separate, single reflectors(Like t-5's)
Run for long time(Longer than MH, PC)
True actinic
Dimmable
Fairly inexpensive option
Downsides:
Only one I know is that they produce a little more heat than t-5's and need more ballast power because of the higher wattage
cschweitzer
New member
Seeing as it is tall, you will probably want a little bit on the higher end of wattage. I assume the dim.s are 36X18X24? Is it RR or will you need to keep room in the back for skimmer/overflow/whatever? If not I wou go 4X95W VHO, but you can probably get away with 3. I have two on my 30G and it looks very nice, but could do with three at that size, so take that into account
you are more than welcome to stop by my house and look at my tank. I'm running 2 IceCaps 660s and overriding 40W bulbs, the beauty of the IceCaps is that you can run any combination of bulbs as long as you don't exceed the watts. pc, vho, no, T5s
underground
New member
vhos are probably a bad idea, they cost a lot for the bulbs and they use a large amount of watts, i recommend t-5, low on watts and are bright, if u ever do a lumen check u can see the 60-70 watt t-5 will produce the same as vho which takes 260 or more watts to produce 160 lumens. Watts is not important in the reef hobby, it is how much of light u can transfer to the tank, t-5s can transfer alot of light with lower watts.
jay24k
Active member
I would go with MH. For a 65 gallon, you are going to need around 300 watts of VHO easily. T5s would work as well but I've never been a big fan of the color.
Here is my reasoning which I think works well. Buy a lumenarc. It literally will light up a 3' spread. Since your 65 tall is 36" wide (checked AGA) this would work very well and only run you 250 watts total. I would slap a 20k xm so you don't have to supplement and should be good to go.
Here is my reasoning which I think works well. Buy a lumenarc. It literally will light up a 3' spread. Since your 65 tall is 36" wide (checked AGA) this would work very well and only run you 250 watts total. I would slap a 20k xm so you don't have to supplement and should be good to go.
I have a 65. I use a sunpod 2x150 w/9 Blue and 9 white moon lights. I also have a96w pc true blue atinic. everything has separate switches so I can vary the lighting effects a lot. I only run the mh's about 6-8 hours a day and everything seems to be flourishing since they were added.
cschweitzer
New member
By the way, lumens is not what is important either, it's the PAR rate that is important for growth and coral coloration.
I would recommend a MH, but he said he did not want to run MH, that is why I would not recommend it. Still, in my mind, MH/VHO is the best followed by MH followed by VHO. T-5's need separate reflectors whereas VHO had internal 180deg reflectors which move all 95W directly into the tank. You lose a lot of the light from T-5's regardless of how much light they put off. They are also right along the lines in prices. I've seen too many ugly colored t-5 tanks. The lighting just is not as true and pure as the VHO. Again, this is what I've seen with my eyes, and my eyes are different than anyone else's, so it comes down to personal opinion. I have tanks running MH(20000K)/VHO, MH(14000K)/VHO, PC, and VHO; if you would like to come over and measure the difference, please do so as you are welcome to.
I would recommend a MH, but he said he did not want to run MH, that is why I would not recommend it. Still, in my mind, MH/VHO is the best followed by MH followed by VHO. T-5's need separate reflectors whereas VHO had internal 180deg reflectors which move all 95W directly into the tank. You lose a lot of the light from T-5's regardless of how much light they put off. They are also right along the lines in prices. I've seen too many ugly colored t-5 tanks. The lighting just is not as true and pure as the VHO. Again, this is what I've seen with my eyes, and my eyes are different than anyone else's, so it comes down to personal opinion. I have tanks running MH(20000K)/VHO, MH(14000K)/VHO, PC, and VHO; if you would like to come over and measure the difference, please do so as you are welcome to.
