VHO Lighting Bulb Choices 3 Different URI Bulbs
 

OK

My current setup is an icecap 660 w/ 4 x 46.5" 110W URI Bulbs Two Actinic, and Two Actinic white. My coral growth has been awesome. But the blueness of the tank is offsetting the whole tank in terms of asthetics. There are three URI Bulb options;

Super Actinic R (420nm peak) = 100% blue spectrum.

Actinic White (12000K) = 50% actinic 03 blue phosphors & 50% white spectrum(triband).

AquaSun (10000K) = 100% white spectrum.


Which means, currently I'm using (approx) 330watts of actinic and 110 watts of white light. OR 220 watts of 6500k, and 220 watts of 12000k

Its about time to replace some bulbs, so I'm curious what difference I might see w/ switching at least one of the bulbs to 10000k in terms of growth and aesthetics(general look, right now, its siginificantly bluer compared to my 14G).

It may be a perfect time for T5 upgrade. The wiring and 660 stay intact and you just swap out the endcaps, standoffs,bulbs and buy SLR reflectors.

How many bulbs do you plan to replace and from where? My suggestion would be to get another actinic white and swap one of the actinics out. This way you can run three actinic white and one actinic and if you don't like it just swap out the old A/W with the new one. The aquasun bulb is very warm (yellow) and will really change the look. I always ran the same combo your currently have when I was using VHO and liked it better than anything else (I had two of each bulb and mixed them quite a bit).

I'm listening:

My questions

What are the benefits of t5 over vho... looking at the wattage t5 46" bulbs are 54w/85w(not sure why two wattages) as opposed to VHO 46.5" being 110W. Thats a considerable difference in wattage... do they give out the same light output?



My thoughts downline(who knows how far... depends on business!) once my frag tank is finally built to spec(including MH) is to use frags to upgrade the lighting on my show tank to MH w/ vho or t5 supplement.

Well, two are up for replacement here pretty quickly. the other two have another few months in em. I.e. one a/w and one actinic...


good thought though on the actinic/white, do you think coral growth would go up or down?

I would say up, but probably not by much.

You could also mix and match the bulbs with the T5 bulbs. A T5 with a good reflector is easily the match for a VHO bulb, and you might find that two T5 bulbs replacing the actinic whites will add more growth and drag the color away from some much blue.

I recently switched from a 6 bulb vho configuration to 4 t-5's with Icecap SLR's and 2 vho suuper actinics, and their is no comparison. The t-5's provide much more useable light.

I wouldn't use the Aquasun. I used to run VHO's in the combo you have (except I had 6). I swapped out 2 of the 3 Actinic White URIs for 2 Coralife 10,000K. I liked the result. Not a fan of Coralife at all, but it worked.
FYI, URI has a new bulb manufacturer, the quality isn't what it used to be. That was the final straw for me to decide on T5s for the new setup.

all awesome info... I'm currently on a limited budget which really means bulbs only, and the icecap SLRS are $25 a piece... I'd need 4, plus bulbs, doubling the amount I'd need for the vho right now... because of the way my canopy is setup I'd need to replace all four bulbs at once(acryllic 4 bulb holder on each side.. ) I might just try getting one actinic white, and replacing a super actinic with it for the time being....

I have 3 bulbs, one of each type and I'm ok with the color. It's a bit pink, so it could stand to use one more actinic. So, with 4 bulbs, I would do 2 blue actinics, and 1 of each of the aquasun and white actinic. Put each of the blue actinic on the outside of the configuration (for example, blue, aquasun, white, blue)
You can also play around with the order in which you put them and you will get slightly different looks.

As far as T5 vs VHO, you already have the VHO set up, stick with it. It only cost $100 every couple of years for 4 new bulbs (yes I go about 18-24 months on my VHO's) Plus, there is not much that you can't keep under them. I have everything from mushrooms and anthelia to LPS (Caulastrea & Plerogyra), to SPS (montipora & Acropora) They may not be as super bright and colorful as they are under halides, but they do have color and they grow very rapidly.

This 30 watt aquasun seems to level out the two actinic and 50/50 for me.

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w16/jAb83_2007/9.jpg

Awesome :) thanks guys! I think I might try the aquasun and see how I like it. I have a friend that uses aquasun's in his tank, and he would definitely trade the bulb off my hands if we were so inclined..

I have extra Aquasuns because I took them out. They're too pink/red. The reef in an ocean at 20 feet deep is more blue than an even mix of actinics and ActinicWhite lamps, but that's what I use, for the aesthetic reasons.