t5/vho instead of mh/vho

E

engine

New member
I know that many people use the mh/vho combo. I read they do this because the vho give a 'better' actinic then the t5's.
Well i dont want to use mh because of the heat and extra expense of running them that i keep hearing about. So I was wondering if i could use the t5's for the white and the vho for the actinics. Not sure if all that made since, but if anybody has any thoughts let me know thanks.
 
IME if your not wanting to keep SPS then your fine with T5 and VHO's. I ran that for awhile on my tank but couldn't keep SPS colors up and get any growth. I used good stuff too, URI actinics and Giesmann T5's on icecap reflectors run by icecap ballast.


Since putting my MH on I have seen much better growth and color. There's just no real substitute for MH right now.
 
For what its worth, I am still running my T5's and VHO's and just using a lower wattage MH for supplimentation. I have two 175w Icecap MH and it keeps the temps and running costs down. I don't use a chiller and 350 w of MH wont do too much to the power bill.
 
I agree with Cham -
Our tank currently has a 4x54 T5 fixture. While it did use less energy - I never like the quality of the lights.
IMHO nothing beats the look of a MH/VHO combination.

That said - I hear there are some new T5 actinics that are supposed to be pretty nice.
 
I had great luck with softies and a few hardy hard corals under just VHO, I added 2-175w MH and slowly rmaped up the amount of time they where on and then back down and honeslty everything seems to grow best with only 3 hours of MH a day, and the clams have been happy for over 6 monthes with it. Im not sure about T5's since I havent used them but dont let MH scare you off, By runniing them 3 hours I have no added heat to my tank thats ever recorded by my controller and the power bill doesnt take a huge hit. Plus I get the added shimmer look at the time of day Im around the tank the most.
If you do go with t5 and MH combo keep track of how things do with it, Im curios as to how well it will work out. Im considering a few T5's to supplement my VHOs just cause the VHO are kind of pinkish and the T5 I have seen are a little more blue. Id like to try to balance them out to get a good color and still run the MH for a few hours a day for shimmer
 
flfirefighter13, you must be mistaken with the pinkish they are the URI aquasuns that look pink, not the URI superactinics.
 
Yep, and the actinic whites give that pink too. I love my VHO setup more than any of my others. VHO is my favorite lighting for almost all of my corals, but I don't mess with SPS.
 
What I use is 3 40Ws 6500K from HD and 3 110W superactincs. I'm using 2 IceCaps 660 that override the 40W to about 80W. I have a mixed reef with sps and clams. Some day maybe I'll go MH or T5, not need to change for now :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9229464#post9229464 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cristhiam
flfirefighter13, you must be mistaken with the pinkish they are the URI aquasuns that look pink, not the URI superactinics.
Click to expand...

Nope not mistaken, Im running 2 aquasuns and 2 superactinics right now, even when I had the white actinics they where pinkish as well.
 
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