Coralife or URI?

volitan

volitan

Member
What is the better flourescent VHO bulb, Coralife, or URI? Is there another type of bulb that is better than these that I don't know about?
 
salth2o

salth2o

Member
I just bought the URI. I based my decision on the fact the have internal reflectors.
To each their own.
 
kris walker

kris walker

Active Member
Corallife annoys me because they claim their actinic bulb has a 7100K color rating. That caused real confusion with me, and wasted time as I had to reasearch it (I just couldn't let it go--I know I'm sick). It turns out that all actinic (420 nm) light has too narrow a spectrum to be even described with a color-rating. But even if you were to try to describe it with color-rating, it comes out to 12000K, not 7100K. The frequency of maximum intensity for 7100K is really green light!
Also, this may be wrong, but I think I remember looking for a 24in VHO, and Corallife didn't make one whereas URI did.
sam
 
D

diatom

Guest
URI seem to be the preferd bulb...if for no other reason then they have a built in reflector, and for some reason seem to be a bit cheaper.
I have one of each and I think they are both good.
 
ironreef

ironreef

Member
uri reflector is good but fwiw I don't know about vho but halides coralife is a poor product. always low par in comparison with the rest
 
deheadreefa

deheadreefa

New Member
It seems inconcievable that people are still using dumb flourescent bulbs.......water removes light the deeper you go down, Flourescents would be ideal for a 4" deep aquculture tray. 175W metall halide bulbs will suffice for "low light" conditions on up to a 2 ' deep tank. Any deeper and you'll need 250 W MH setup. As for coralife....great for fish only...they last a long time. VHO's decline the minute you turn them on they suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DOWN DOWN WITH VHO
 
jimi

jimi

Active Member
Hey Deadheadreefer, opinions are like as**#les, evryone has one. There is nothing wrong with vhos, I personally like them better. Alot of the mh tanks that I have seen make the corals look brown or turn brown, they burn hotter and are more expensive.
 
ironreef

ironreef

Member
I've seen and had many tanks with good growth and color with vho. vho is good for @12" so you may need many bubls. In short tanks thay make good bulbs. IMo I've seem more tanks with vho that are anemone tanks that breed the most captive bubble rose I've seen. Dunno if thats a plus or minus why they split so much. But they still need alot of vho. Bullbe tips are usally in deeper water or at least 20ft anyway. They are deeper ones. But I dissagree with halides having brown corals. My tank has 2_250w iwaski and 4 actinic vho. I have manysps that have good color. I've tanken sps from vho tanks= brown and they turn green and purple in my tank. Theres morethan just lighting nutrients play an important role in color as well as water parameter as well as lighting. My soties have more color in halides. My frogspawn grows more dense in halides but lps in my tank need to be on the bottom. My clams grow faster an live in halides. I've never had luck with clams in vho other may have but long term for me never. But I dissagree with saying vho suck cuz they still have aplace. I've seen nice tanks with mere 175w with sps nicely colored. IME/IMO you get nice greens with lowe halide watts. but with hight like 400w every thing turns purple
 
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