Lighting

FREE ENEWSLETTER

FishChannel Forums

Rules-Read First

Home

Members

Calendar

Who's On

Welcome Guest ( Login | Register )

Lighting

Author

Message

Swarley

Posted 1/9/2011 8:29:54 PM

Average Member

Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 2/21/2013 6:54:53 PM
Posts: 520, Visits: 317

I had a reef tank for many years and at the time to only choices were metal halide or VHO. VHO were the more affordable choice and more manageable to my limited carpentry and electronic skills so went with that. I had awesome luck with mushrooms, LPS's like frogspawn and torch corals and leather corals as well as constantly reproducing greenbubble anemones. I had a friend a few years back start up a small reef tank and he went with the newer compact flour. His corals looked nowhere near as good as mine and he eventually gave them up. This was several years ago and I see people referring to the new T5 compacts, so my question is: Does anyone still use VHOs and are the newer compacts much better than the ones they started off with? Anyone with ACTUAL personal experience with great flourishing corals with them?

Post #214640

matt is awesome

Posted 1/11/2011 2:40:58 PM

Average Member

Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 1/4/2013 1:37:45 PM
Posts: 903, Visits: 1,743

i know a couple of people who still use VHO lights. i personally like T5's and my corals are looking great under them. you dont need nearly aas many bulbs which is a plus. i have only two on my tank and i have the same corals as you had. i have been to one of my friends who has VHO and i didnt really like the look of the light that they produce very much.

4 gallon Finnex pico aquarium- Iwagumi tank with orange eye black tiger shrimp.

10 gallon- Planted Asian biotope with CPD's, sparkling gouramis, and a breeding pair of Betta albimarginata.

Post #214730

carnut

Posted 1/11/2011 4:32:49 PM

New Member

Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 1/11/2011 4:33:24 PM
Posts: 4, Visits: 31

I switched from metal halide to T5. Growth is just as good and so is colour. One thing to remember is that you need good reflectors on the t5. A bad reflector with a great bulb is not going to work very well.

Post #214742

Swarley

Posted 1/18/2011 1:11:32 PM

Average Member

Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 2/21/2013 6:54:53 PM
Posts: 520, Visits: 317

Alot of the look of VHOs is the choice of bulb. I found for best results in my custom 6' long/12" high/ 24" deep reef tank was 1 6' Aquasun and 1 6' Actinic Blue.

Thanks for the replies and insight bout the reflector.

Post #215203

« Prev Topic | Next Topic »

Reading This Topic

Active Users: 1 (1 guest, 0 members, 0 anonymous members)

No members currently viewing this topic.

Forum Moderators: Admin, afmweb, Animal Network Admin, Suprafa, urchin, FishChannel Moderator, princessotfu, David Lass, FC Community Moderator, leobayr, Findingjohn, nmonks, Assistant Moderator

Permissions

All times are GMT -8:00, Time now is 12:11pm