SPS and VHO

H

Hightower33

New member
I now have a healthy tank with a ton of coraline and quite a few LPS coral. They are all doing fantastic

But I am thinking about SPS to fill the tank out more.

2 questions- What corals will I be able to keep with VHO

Am I going to run into quite the chemical/stinging warfare with my LPS.
I have Frogspawn, hammer, candycane, pipe organ, brain, moon, and various mushrooms, zoos
 
Hi Hightower: In my 45g tank, I use 4x95w VHO (2 actinic, 2 50/50). It is primarily softies, zoas, LPS, but I do have a few SPS.

IME, I have success with the following:

monti cap (very easy to keep)
hydnophora (also easy, but this guy needs to be kept away from other corals)
stylophora (I love this one...great polyp extension & bright green color)

I tried an acropora, but it did not do well under the VHOs. I have since moved it to my 90g under MH.

Probably a good idea to place the SPS away from the sweepers of your LPS.

There are other SPS that should do ok under VHO, such as monti digi. But the above are the only ones I have direct experience with under VHOs. I think you'll definitely want to place them in the upper half of your tank.

hth,
rob
 
I had a 30 gallon reef tank that I started back in 1999 when I was in high school with 4X95 watt VHO lamps in it. I ran 2 URI 50/50s, 1 URI Actinic and 1 URI 10k bulb. I changed them out about every 8-12 months but would probably change them out more often if I was to do it again.
I had some sps in it as well as some Xenia , leathers, mushrooms
and zoos. I will second that Monti cap does very well under this type of lighting and Mine even took on a nice green color. mine grew from a 1 inch frag to over a foot in about a two year time span. Some of the encrusting montiporas will grow too. I had a pachysyris grow moderately well and a hydnophora, which I took out because it was too aggressive.
I actually had some Acroporas do moderately well and give me some good growth. I had better luck with thinner branched varieties and got them from established tanks as frags.
the one I had the best luck with looked exactly like this one.

http://www.infinitysoft.net/Reference/RefDB/RefPic.asp?ID=3

I didn't have good luck with montipora digitata under this set up. It actually survived and grew but it was at a very, very slow rate. Wouldn't try them again unless it was with MH. Hope this helps.
 
ok cool. looked at other threads too, and internet pics, and sps is quite successful with VHO it looks like providing they are the upper half of tank, and lots of flow which I have.

I went to get a monti and a birdsnest.

Thanks for your input
 
It does work but I would definately put them higher up in the tank. I saved my 660 ballast and will probably use it again.
 
I have a 65 gallon (equivalent to a 55 tall) with 4 VHOs: 46.5 inch - 1 superactinic, 1 50/50, and 2 Aquasun. I had a few SPS placed within 15 inches of the water surface and they were doing ok, but growth was slow. Then I went to home depot and bought those mirror squares, and put three of those in my canopy to better reflect the VHO illumination. And my SPS just took off in growth! I've now got 29 different SPS in my tank, all still within 15 inches of the top and most within 8 inches of the top. Over a dozen are acropora, and then also monti dig and cap, hynophora, psammacora, seriatophora (see my gallery). If you're used to keeping just LPS and haven't been keeping a close eye on Ca and ALK, then you'll really need to monitor water quality too if you want to keep your SPS healthy and growing. The one critter that did poorly with the added light was the ricordia shrooms that were near the top. they all bleached, though the other red and green shrooms did (and are still doing) fine.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8206448#post8206448 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by neuroslicer
Then I went to home depot and bought those mirror squares, and put three of those in my canopy to better reflect the VHO illumination. And my SPS just took off in growth! /B]
Click to expand...


What kind of mirror squares you talking about. Just regular mirror but as squares?
 
Hum...I've actually read that mirrors are about the worse as far as reflectors go, because the light is basically going thru the glass 2 times, which shields a bunch of the light's intensity. Don't get me wrong, it's surely better than nothing. But I believe white paint is better than mirror for reflecting light.

I have no reflectors with my vho bulbs. But then again, the bulbs themselves have built in reflectors.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8208900#post8208900 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Serioussnaps
dont want to rain on the parade..but look at T5's
Click to expand...


Actually that will be next long term upgrade project, because I have Workhorse 7 ballasts that can be used. However there is still quite a cost.

So at present, Im hoping VHO and SPS will work out.
 
\by they way seattle get rid of that RIO...dont say i didnt warn you....it WILL blow in your sump and ruin your tank....this is off topic...BUT IT WILLLLL HAPPEN!!!
 
\by they way seattle get rid of that RIO...dont say i didnt warn you....it WILL blow in your sump and ruin your tank....this is off topic...BUT IT WILLLLL HAPPEN!!!

this is from experience
 
Serious: I will take it under advisement ;) Trust me, the thought has already crossed my mind. I have seen the threads. But I have also seen the threads saying it's over hyped, that it was definitely more of an issue pre UL than it is now. In either case, it has made me wonder...

btw, I see you use seio ph also... :rolleye1:
 
These are just 12 by 12 inches mirror tiles usually put up in a bathroom or bedroom... a pack of 6 at Home Depot is less than $20. They come with double sided adhesive pads to hold them into place. I also had read that mirrors weren't good reflectors... but my results speak for themselves. I've got over 2 dozen SPS thriving with just 4 VHOs, and without the mirrors their growth was much slower.

I was seriously considering scraping all my VHOs in favor of a set of T5s, but just thought I'd try the mirrors first, at nearly no cost, before spending all that cash. So glad I didn't jump on the T5 band wagon that quickly!
 
yeah the seio is gone whenever the tunze nanostreams come out...the 6000 is already to bulky for a 55 but i plan on upgrading in a couple of years anyways after im done building this tank
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8212056#post8212056 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by neuroslicer
These are just 12 by 12 inches mirror tiles usually put up in a bathroom or bedroom... a pack of 6 at Home Depot is less than $20. They come with double sided adhesive pads to hold them into place. I also had read that mirrors weren't good reflectors... but my results speak for themselves. I've got over 2 dozen SPS thriving with just 4 VHOs, and without the mirrors their growth was much slower.

I was seriously considering scraping all my VHOs in favor of a set of T5s, but just thought I'd try the mirrors first, at nearly no cost, before spending all that cash. So glad I didn't jump on the T5 band wagon that quickly!
Click to expand...

Are the mirrors still necessary if the VHO's have thier own internal reflector built in?
 
Necessary? Not if all you've got are soft coral and LPS. But I found the mirrors provided enough additional lreflected ight that my SPS did significantly better.
 
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