PC v. VHO... Ding ding

[Grav]

In my 3 years in this hobby I've gone from fish only to FOWLR to Sofites, to LPS to... well everything now.  My 33g tank has had 4 lighting upgrades.  NO to double NO to PC to Double PC and today to VHO.

 

Let me say this.

 

230w of PC is NOTHING compared to 220w of VHO. Hands down 100% no question, VHO wins.  Mind you these were not old PC bulbs either. I had to make the change cus one of the ballasts pooped out on me.  

 

If you are new don't make the mistakes I've made. Skip right ahead and save yourself time and $.  My <$100 DIY VHO lights blow away $300 worth of PCs.

 

The colors are fantastic!!!!!

 

Phil

[michaelg]

Cool- can't wait to get some extra wire so I can fire mine up!

[lowsingle]

Agreed...VHOs are significantly better!

[xeon]

Wait till you add Metal Halides.... ding ding... BOOM!  I am really liking my new light setup from Hellolights.  I went from 10K MH's and 03 VHO's to 20K MH's and URI Actinic White (50/50) VHO's which look very white.

[krish]

Dave,

You are giving me ideas now :-)

 

-krish

[Grav]

Yea, Still trying to figure out what I'm gonna do on the MH area.  

 

With a tank 30 inches deep, I'm leaning toward 2 or 3 10k 250 HQIs + 440w of blue 03 and 220w of 6,700 VHO.

[Armson]

ok where do T5s fit into all this? Let me break it down the way I see.

 

NO vs Double NO      D. NO wins in three rounds with KO

D. NO vs PC             PC wins  in two rounds with a TKO

PC vs VHO              According to the judges (Grav) VHO wallops PC with a first round Knock out

Next fight will be .....

MH Vs VHO       speculation by our experts (xeon) is that MH will KO VHO with one punch.

 

 

 

.... Ok my question is this ....

 

do you think T5 has got enough heart and skill to go the distance with VHO? We know he wouldn't stand a chance against MH. So I would like to field the question to our panel of experts (wamas). What do you all think?

[mogurnda]

T5 vs VHO?

 

That will indeed be interesting.  I have never used VHO, so I can't say how it compares to my T5s.  If you look at the industrial sites where they measure light output, T5 is competitive with MH in terms of lumens per watt.  As far as I know, no one has looked at that in an aquarium context.  In terms of appearance, nothing beats halides, though.

[Grav]

We are NOT billing it as: VHO v MH.

 

It is:

 

The Wedding!!!

 

At 4ft,  

T5 = 54w,

VHO = 110w,

My 1st question is, can you fit 2 T5s in the space of 1 VHO bulb?

Then ask Lumens or Par / watt.

 

Right?

[traveller7]

Much better reflectors and space use in the T5 solution bring it to near VHO levels.  IMHO Best bang for the buck is an IceCap 660 driving 2 VHO actinics and 2 T5 daylights.

 

I am still running a few T5's but they are a blip on the electric bill :p

 

Of course, this is a guy who sold all his IC's and is running about 12-150wt MH and 4-400wt MH

[lowsingle]

Xeon:

 

Have you seen any difference in coral growth when you went from 10Ks MH and VHOs to 20Ks MH and actinic white lighting?  I've been contemplating this change as well but am concernced that it will stunt coral growth.

 

cheers,

Darren

[xeon]

It has only been a week, but I would expect that growth will be slower from things I have read.  Otherwise it is too early to tell from personal experience.

[michaelg]

funny- I just finished a major lighting change around tonight thanks to the goodies from the Krish Hellolights order.

I was running 1 400W XM 20K, and 2x55W PC actinic.

 

Changed to 1 400W XM10K, and 2x75W VHO actinic.  

 

The 20K really enhanced the colors of the corals (some of which I can just see now that it isnt so blue), but it was just toooo blue, and the corals, IMO were growing kinda slow.  Will see how I like the change in 6 months.  If I don't notice a big growth difference, I will try the VHO daylights with the 20K halide.  I do like having the actinic first on and last off though- seems like a more gentle transition than a daylight would provide....

 

I'll drop a quick write up on my opinion on the aro vho rig in the hellolights thread.