VHO Lighting

Would it be okay to have 4 112 watt bulbs as lighting for a 75 gallon tank? I plan to have corals, anemones, and maybe a clam in the future

 

I would go with t5 or halides, especially if you want to keep a clam or nem.

 

Okay would the wattage be the same

 

vhos will be fine. one of my local lfs has a 75 with 44o watt vho and has clam, sps, and softies. i still have my old vho setup myself for backup. just not as many options in colors, but some of the best actinics there is.

 

What do you mean by color options

 

well you don't have like fiji purple and all the other colors t5 has. you basically have 6500K, a 50/50, and a true actinic bulb with vho. they have been around for years and have proven to be effective.

 

oh i thought you meant that you couldnt have diiferent colors of corals :0

 

If you are going to spend money on a lighting system You would be better off getting a tek or something along those lines a vho setup will limit what you can keep and the bulbs need replacement much sooner than t5. Every 6 months vs 12-18.

 

for some reason i was thinking you already had these, but if your starting from scratch don't bother with vho. t5 or mh would be the way to go. and yea it doesn't have to cost 4,5,6,700 dollars to be a good light. do your research first. i have two 100 dollar lights that i would take any day over a t5 setup not knocking t5s and yea they're generic but i feel i've already got my money out of them and my tank has grown like crazy.

 

VHO is out of date. Thats like saying you would like to buy PC. Don't waste your money on it, regardless of the deal. Unless its free ninety nine.

I would rank (IMO) T5 as a squeek above halide. WHY? Well a couple of reasons... Less power consumption, less heat, MORE LUMEN PER WATT OUTPUT, better blending possiblities, longer lamp life and so on. Are MH good? Of course they are but they are not the lighting God.

VHO was great when it first came out, something different than Halide or a nice actinic supplement. BUT T12 lamps are lousy at holding Lumen output, use more materials, including Hg, and need to be replaced just about as often as PC..

Also think about this @ 4x110w you are pulling 440 plus at least an additional 10% as waste wattage. Whereas if you run 6x54w (which would rock) you are are drawing 324w and still getting better results.

Do what thou wilt but if it was me or someone I knew VHO wouldn't be over the tank.