VHO lights

[jason sartain]

Do any of us use VHO light's only?Are they good enough to grow SPS's in a 31" tall tank?
I know there's not the same bulb selection,but they still have the normal 10k,12k,actinic,etc....
Any experience would be helpful.

 

[purplegorilla]

I have been using 2 VHO's (160w each) for the past 2 years. My tank is 32 inches tall and 24 inches deep. IN addition, I have metal halide (250w). Last time I check with my Par meter I was getting 500 or so par at the bottom. The VHO are super actinic and there are no bulbs that can compare to VHO super actinic in terms of color.

 

[jason sartain]

ares;419000 wrote: VHO is all but a dieing breed. they are mostly used for actinic as many feel that T5's just cant match their appearance in that spectrum. as purple said, I do the same, 250w halides and some VHO actinics.

ALL VHO though... would be quite inefficient and bulky to get the nescessary light density required for a deep tank. T5s win out for primary lighting, and once you go down that road, your better off to stick with them for your actinic needs also so you can interchange as you want.

in any case, 31" tall tank, if you want SPS and clams at the bottom, opt for halides, 250w or 400w. vho for supplement.

Thank for the input,as for now I am using 10-54 watt T-5's on my tank with SPS's and clam's on the bottom.No MH or anything else.The fixture's I found online are 72" long with two 160 watt VHO bulb's.
I thought I could use two of these(640watts total) and increase my wattage by 100 watt's.But if the lighting is going to be differant,than maybe I shouldn't use them.
It's just really hard to find a good fixture to fit my tank the way I want it to and not have to take out a loan to get it.
IE-MH plus T-5's in the same 72" fixture brand new is around $1200 to $1400 before shipping!!!

 

[jason sartain]

Yep I think another DIY project is headed my way!!
Thanks for the help.