Which VHO lights?

[trippclark]

About 18 months ago, before deciding to add soft corals to my at that time fish and live rock 55 gallon tank, I upgraded my lighting from 2 normal flourescent bulbs to a new ballast and 4 VHO 48" 110 watt bulbs to give me about 8 watts per gallon.
When it came to selecting WHICH VHO bulbs to select, I was unable to find any definitive guidance on which bulbs or combination of bulbs to choose. I ended up getting URI bulbs - 2 Aquasun and 2 Actinic White.
I added the corals, and all are doing well and have grown and spread slightly, but not spreading as fast as I envisioned that they would when I read descriptions on this site and elsewhere about soft corals spreading "rapidly throughout the tank." I am wondering if perhaps the lighting combination that I have is not ideal.
I am about to change out bulbs for the second time, and was wondering if I should select a different combination. There is also a URI Actinic 03 (blue) that is available that I have not tried.
I have the following corals in the tank:
yellow polyps
green star polyps
Ricordia
Zoos
What is the best bulb combination for these? What exactly should I expect as far as growth and spreading of these? Is there something that I should do/add to help foster the spreading of the corals?

 

[bseth90]

Not sure about the size of your tank, but I have a 90 48"long 24" deep 18 wide and I use 5 110 watt vho bulbs....my combo is 2 actinic blue 3 white...the blue is great on the zoos. If you go with the blue run them 1 hour before and 1 hour after the whites...you'll like the effect. As for changing the bulbs...I change out mine about every 10-12 months sounds like your changing more often....that really is up to you, but you can start to tell when they go down. I would not change them all at once as this can be harmful to the corals. Maybe two one week and two the other week. I have been sucessfully keeping crocea clams under my vho's for 6 months now. Also zoos, yellow polyups, torch, hammer, elephant ears, and leathers. Good luck :happy:

 

[trippclark]

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately the way my lights are wired together I cannot cut the blues on one hour before and off one hour after, as you suggest, but it does sound like a neat effect.
Any other opinions on light combinations from others using VHO?

 

[reeffeer]

doublecheck your placement maybe creeping them up slowly will help a bit before breaking the bank.
move them up an leave them for two weeks or so then see what if any benefits you see.
go slowly as mentioned before too much at once can cause them to purge themselves of thier algea and bleach.
just read before you do.
good luck