will just vho lights work for hard corals

[old hermit]

i was wanting some hard corals so im getting rid of my 65 watt pc light and getting 4 75 watt vho system for my 29 g. will this work? i also want some sps corals. i cant afford a mh system so this is all i can do i just wanted some info from people. no clams or any of that stuff just corals.

 

[wamp]

Sounds good to me. Halides are great but on a small tank you can run VHO and still be ok for about whatever coral you want.

 

[krusk]

You can definitly get
Porites (Finger Coral)
Goniopora (Daisy Coral)
Euphyllia (Frogspawn, Hammer, Torch, Anchor coral) these are my favorite)
Catalaphyllia (Elegance Coral)
... too many to listed
have fun

 

[y2says]

I think you will be fine.

 

[nm reef]

I keep a growing assortment of LPS corals under a combination of pc's & vho's....the combination has been working well for me. Curious as to why you plan to remove the pc?

 

[dirtybilge]

I love my Icecap 660! Use four 75W tubes two atintics and two 10,000k and thats 300Watts on a 29G I don't think you will have any problems growing things.

 

[kris walker]

Many have had great success with SPS and VHO (checkout the IceCap SPS experiment). So I would say you'll be fine as long as you get say 3-4 24-in bulbs. However, from what I have seen, MH is not much more expensive (if more expensive at all) than an equivalent VHO setup. But I suppose there are exceptions to this.
kris

 

[old hermit]

i like the pc lights but 65 watts is not enough. when i got them i bought one with a hood system not retro so i cant fit anything else on top of the tank. in other words i will end up having to get new lights anyway so i can build a canopy for them and a mh. i could tear the hood off my pc so it is smaller. those lights are only giving me 2 watts per gallon but if i get the vho system i will have 10 watts per gallon. i just wanted some opinions on this im not jumping into it really soon. right now im just researching. thanks alot for the help i know the lighting questions suck but i had to ask.

 

[kris walker]

WPG is not meaningless. It is just not as precise as lumens per area per depth.
just my 0.02,
kris

 

[predator]

I am running VHO's on my tank and have been from day 1. Im have many sps corals who are healthy, growing and full of color.
I would suggest you get Mh's and run them concurrent with your PC's. But I love VHO's and recommend them to anyone. Just feel it out. I mean it's like Broomer said, "Your Tank, Your Choice".
If VHO's are ran off a quality electronic ballest there life span is right up there with PC's. You might have to replace them a little(emphesis on little) more often than Pc's but PC's are considerably more expensive. Now, I'm not a technical guy by any means. You get to talking about lumens and all that I tend to get head-aches. I do know that the VHO's are more intense and there color is better. Especially the actnic lights. It is a much more richer and vibrent blue than the PC's.

 

[don-9]

I will not get into the lighting type debate. I think vho's, pc's and Mh will work. I am currently running 4x95 vho's on my 55 gallon, and yes I know I can put 48 inch bulbs on this tank but I moved these from a 38 gal and I will get the longer bulbs next time I order. I am keeping a deresa clam and several sps corals in this tank, even 2 acropora frags. I am not getting the growth rates with the acroporas that I have read about on many sights, I don't know if these are just slower growing types or if they do need mh lighting. I don't think that it is a lighting issue, both are bright green and one has violet tips and they are both growing.

 

[richard rendos]

Check out Champion Lightings reef tank at the following link:
<a href="http://www.championlighting.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?page=Tank_Gallery/tank_gallery.html&cart_id=" target="_blank">http://www.championlighting.com/cgi-bin/catalog.cgi?page=Tank_Gallery/tank_gallery.html&cart_id=</a>
They don't seem to have any problems with just VHO's.