Kinds of lighting

[jag3365]

If anyone has a 125 gallon tank I'd like to know what kind of lighting you use.
I am putting together my tank, and I am planning for lighting for the future. OK to start I am just going to do FOWLR for starters with nothing really intensive, so I was thinking a couple 72" VHO. But I have been reading by all the "oldies" on the board that they should've gone MH to start with. Should I just go out and get MH instead of VHO?
Also what are the benfits of each? I know MH has higher wattage, what benefit does VHO have? Is both good? what would you guys say?

 

[wrassecal]

If you are going fowlr vho will do nicely. The main reason for mh is for sps corals. Most people who do use mh supplement with vho actinic. So let's say you go with your 2 72" vho's (My actinics are the 72"icecaps). Then later if you want to get into the coral stuffand go mh, you can still use your vho's, just get actinic bulbs. So no loss on your part

 

[jag3365]

So can I get one of those mh/vho retrofit kits online and just not plug in the mh ballast until I get corals? Or would it be cheaper to just get what I want now and the MH down the road? Just trying to find out if it would be more benificial/cheaper to get it all now, or more DIY piece by piece.

 

[wrassecal]

You can get a vho reto kit now and easily add the mh later. For example on my hood I have 2 72" actinic retro that I run on the front and back. The middle has 4 vho retro on a seperate ballast. Can only run 660 watts on each ballast. when I add the mh I'm going to take out the 4 bulb and put it on a 55. Then add the mh in the middle area. HTH

 

[jag3365]

Ok so what kind of wattage am I looking for here? Getting a 72" kit, with a icecap 660, and adding 2 or 3 bulbs on it. I know it's only 440w total, is that enough do you think? No corals yet, maybe a few small inverts but that's it for now.
Do you have any suggestions as to where to get a retro kit like this?
Thanks for your help wrasse, I am learning a lot.

 

[wrassecal]

72" inch bulbs are 165 watts each so you with 2 you would have 330. the ballast will take 660 watts so you can have 4 if you want to. Shoot me an email at dbradley9@cox.net and I'll give you a couple of ideas that can't be posted here when I get home from work.

 

[jag3365]

I was just doing a little looking, how do you get ballasts for 3 mh lights? I am looking into the future and would you get 3 icecap 250w MH ballasts? Or I've seen retro kits online that have the triple (made by advance transformer) ballasts? Which would be the way to go?

 

[wrassecal]

Jason, go to the equipment and diy section. I bumped my thread on mh questions....there is great advice from Broomer5 and golfish there. It will help you out.