vho lights enough for a 24" tall tank???

[urbor]

Hi i have a 240 gallon tank and that is 2' x 2' x 8'.
I would like to put my reef tank in there I which has lots of coral (brains, polps , zoos, leathers lps etc.)
I have 4 six foot vhos on the 240 i need to know is that enough light for my coral or do i need to go with metal halides??

please help me out
thanks tom

 

[dustybuddy]

wats the wattage on the VHOs? if u wanna get into sps, clams, and anemones as you grow more advanced.....MH is better.

 

[urbor]

no i dont want to get into sps.
the bulbs are a 160 watts a piece

 

[der Riff-Konig]

Check this article out.

http://www.myfishtank.net/articles/choosing_lighting.php

 

[Anemonebuff]

I was successful with VHOs on my 125 and I only upgraded to halides for the glitter lines. The color of VHOs, particularly URI bulbs, are the best IMO.

 

[urbor]

how much more electricty do the halides use did they make your electric bill higher

 

[Anemonebuff]

No. Watts are watts no matter what(that's a mouth full). 500watts of MH are the same as 500watts of VHO when the bill rolls in. Like I said I only got them to get glitter lines, but that is a personal choice. Halides will reach further into the tank and generate more heat. So, if heat is an issue MH may be a problem that would either need a chiller or more fans to eliminate or disperse heat.

 

[rooroo]

I have a 24" deep tank, a 65 gallon, and I use 4 24" VHOs (75 watts each). Everything is quite happy. My torch and frogspawn have grown nicely, and I had a hitch-hiker plate coral which was the size of a pinhead and now is the size of a silver dollar. The mushrooms have actually dropped off of the high rocks and sank to the bottom.

Just be sure to use 2 blue actinics and 2 of your choice. I use 2 blues, 1 white actinic and 1 Aquasun, all URI.

 

[reefer_for_life]

i had 4 110watt VHO bulbs on a 24" tank ( 120gallon 4x2x2 ) and kept what your talking about no problem. i would go with 2 actinics and 2 50/50's bulbs, it looks good with that combo. good luck.

 

[urbor]

yeah i would really like to stay with the vho because i already own them and they are set up on the tank

 

[Anemonebuff]

If you want clams or SPS just keep them on the top 1/4 of the tank. I kept my maxima clam(which I still have) and a seriatopora(sold) under VHOs without any problems.

 

[cristhiam]

Here is my 125 with, 2 IceCaps 660, running 4 40W Phillips bulbs from HD and 2 110W actinics. If you use all vho bulbs I'm sure you are ok

and my old 55 just using 3 40W 6500K and 1 110W