Vho

[bones]

Do Coralife VHO bulbs require special fixtures to work properly?
The hood I am looking at is the Marineland Eclipse 3 with two 24in Florescent fixtures.
Want to put in one 75W Actinic VHO and one 75W 10,000k VHO

 

[saltyrich]

Absolutely. They won't fire at all as far as I know. I also recommend you research the bulbs a little. I use URI vho bulbs and would not have it any other way. The URI bulbs, in my opinion, are far superior because they have an internal reflector within the bulb that directs all of the light output into the tank. I haven't used coralife vho bulbs, but I do not believe that they other this advantage on their bulbs.

 

[slick]

The ballast in your hood don't have enough power to start and run VHO bulbs.

 

[bang guy]

1 - Soft rubber endcaps are unaceptable for VHO. They will eventually crack. I recommend hard plastic 3-piece german endcaps.
2 - Your ballast may or may not light VHO bulbs. It will not offer the increased amount of light though and a VHO bulb lit by a NO ballast has a very limited lifespan.
3 - Coralife makes a few VHO's with internal reflectors. I tried one once. It sucked. Stick to URI in my opinion.
4 - If you want to go VHO, I recommend against that hood. Too much needs to be changed. I suggest you look for a VHO hood and save yourself the headache.

 

[mg1197]

Get electronic ballasts for VHO. Also, I agree that you should use URI - the internal reflectors are great!