Tell me about lights!

[dstoneburg]

So I decided to take my 80g from a FOWRL to a reef. An 80g for a FOWL just wasnt big enough for the fish I wanted. So a reef seems just amazing! I have 2 korlias #4's which seem to be perfect. I have an icecap 660 ballast, and am wondering if I could just purchase a different kind of lights and put them onto that ballast. I would like to do pretty much everything but clams. What type of bulbs would I need and can they fit into my 660?

 

[scsinet]

A 660 can run up to 16 lamp feet at up to 440w.
So it will run (4) 48" 110w VHO lamps or (4) 46.5" 54w T5 lamps. The T5 lamps will be somewhat overdriven by the ballast and will have a shorter life, but may give you a bit more light.
With either type of lamp, you should be able to keep everything but SPS. Anemones should be okay.

 

[dstoneburg]

Which would you advise? The t5's or VHO? and whats the price difference going to be?
I also want to sincerly thank you, I think you have replied to EVERY thread ive made asking for help about certain subjects. Thank you very much for your time and knowledge.

 

[al mc]

Dstone..... I'd go with the T5's. You will also get the most light out of them if they each have their own reflector.

 

[scsinet]

I'm honestly not sure which I'd recommend. The T5 lamps are a bit more efficient than VHO, but the overdrive on the 660 will only put them at around 85w. I'm not sure even with the added efficiency of T5 that 85w will equal a 110w VHO lamp.
Also, the other big thing that T5s have going for them is much longer life than VHO, but with the shortened life of the T5 from being overdriven, again... I don't know.
Al's right though, if you go T5, use individual reflectors to be sure.

 

[dstoneburg]

So I have a realativly small coralife light strip, that lets off a blue-ish light and has two pretty small 10k bulbs in it. Then I also have my icecap 660 ballast with 4 bulb caps. So Im assuming that means I can put 4 bulbs into the icecap. What four bulbs do I want to get? I want to ge the best kind for a 80g bowfront. Exact names would help immensly so I can just search and purchase them. If you know of a great place to grab some that would be great as well! Thanks!

 

[reefraff]

4 overdriven 54 watt T5 lamps will give you enough light to grow acros under the lights if you want to. reef geek dot com will sell you a 4 lamp Ice Cap retro fit kit minus the ballast that will have everything you need including lamps. You should probably use 6 lamps over that tank but the other 2 lamps don't really need to be overdriven. A friend with a 75 has his set up that way. He has 3 Crocea clams on the sandbed. He's had a couple of those for nearly 2 years. Also has some nice SPS and a BTA.