VHO lighting

[Billabong]

Is VHO lighting good enough for SPS?

[dots]

VHO is primarily only used as an Actinic Supplement these days.

Off all the flourescent bulbs, the T5 is noted for producing the best results with SPS, Anenome, Clams.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-12/newbie/index.php

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-08/dw/index.php

[jimsplace]

VHO lighting will work for many sps. I have a 90 with many sps / lps corals and does very well. I have a Icecap 660 running 4 URI 110w bulbs (3 white, 1 blue).

There is also a very good thread on VHO lighting with many pictures of tanks using this lighting (I'm not sure where to find it).

[divewsharks]

You are really better off going with T5's, widely available, large selection of fixtures and bulbs and their ability to keep whatever you want in your tank (providing you have the right setup, all T5's are not created equal).
Take a look in the lighting forum, lots of info in there.

[Entropy]

You can keep SPS with normal output flourescent bulbs, so yes VHO will work just fine. I think people get caught up in the latest and greatest and fail to remember that people were keeping SPS just fine before T5's were invented. If you are buying new I would also suggest T5's (actually I would suggest metal halide), but the older stuff will still work, especially if you already own it or can pick it up cheap (from the guy that just got the new T5 setup :D ).

[der_wille_zur_macht]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15037842#post15037842 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Entropy
You can keep SPS with normal output flourescent bulbs, so yes VHO will work just fine. I think people get caught up in the latest and greatest and fail to remember that people were keeping SPS just fine before T5's were invented. If you are buying new I would also suggest T5's (actually I would suggest metal halide), but the older stuff will still work, especially if you already own it or can pick it up cheap (from the guy that just got the new T5 setup :D ).

+1. It is entirely possible to keep SPS and nearly any other livestock under VHO; many thousands of reef keepers have done it successfully for years (myself included).

However, "possible" does not mean "optimal" for a given set of criteria. As mentioned above, I wouldn't build a new tank with VHO today, unless I had the parts sitting around or got them for cheap on the used market.

And just to be clear, when we say "VHO" in this thread, we really mean T12 VHO. Many other sizes of flourescent tubes are available in VHO, including T5. Back in the day, T12 was the only size used in VHO output, so the T12 was understood as implied when people talked about "VHO lighting."

[boz151]

IME T12 VHO is fine for keeping SPS and Clams no problem with good growth. Check out the new URI Professional series of bulbs, they are the higher intensity "blue" of the T5 bulbs rather than the usual deeper purple you get from the VHO bulbs. They also make a new 75/25 actinic/white which has a really nice color to it.