Supplemental lighting opinions and options.

We are about due to replace or current 60" VHO (x2) actinic bulbs and we want to know everyone opinions on what bulb, ballasts they use for actinic lighting and why.

The reason we are debating this is because this past week Barb and i went coral hunting and the fluorescentes we saw off of almost all the coral we saw at this one shop was amazing. They used mostly T5 lights and it was still early in the day so some of the tanks still didnt have their full lighting on but man did they glow. But when we got them home we dont see this same glow. They still look nice but not as nice as they were when you picked them out.

What we run right now is 14k Phoenix MH for the main light and two 60" UVL actinic VHO's. The VHO's we have now are way past their prime and im sure if we just replaced them we would get more fluorescentes but i dont want to dump money into VHO's again if i can get better results with something else.

So heres what im asking.

1-Just replace the VHO's with new bulbs?
2-Swap out the end caps and get T5 actinic bulbs
3-Swap out the end caps and get another ballast and have two colors of T5 bulbs per side of the tank.
4-Move to a LED light strip in a mostly or all blue config.

Please tell us about what you use or what you have seen other people using and please name brands color type ect...

And pics are more then welcome

dump the vho's, they have really bad colour run hot and burn money for no good reason. Workhorse 7 ballasts are dirt cheap,electronic,can be extended for remote ballasting, Im thinking more ballasts give more options and if one fails you still have light, when my icecap goes I will put mine on multiple ballasts just for the dusk/dawn option
ATI Blue + and Korallen Fiji purple
compared to vho bulbs $ wise you can get extra colors for trial and still be ahead

I say go with LEDs I just bought a Reef Brite 24" all blue display. For what I have read it puts out more par then T-5s of any comparable bulb. Plus you have the energy efficiency of LEDs and the longevity. It also comes with a controller so you can control the power out put to the Leds. The 24" was $195 at Premium Aquatics. The 48" has 24 1.5w leds and is about $240.....Here is a vid of the 24" bar on a 300g...
YouTube - reebrite600g.wmv

One of my big worries as well is if they would get over powered by the MH....From everything I have read the Reef Brites are the best bang for the buck and put out enough power to not be over powered by MH lighting.....There is another one that is the elite of Led bars called CoralSky that is the highest power of the Led bars but it is also $250 for I think a 24" display.

Those look cool. Ill look into them for sure.

Originally Posted by high tide

dump the vho's, they have really bad colour run hot and burn money for no good reason. Workhorse 7 ballasts are dirt cheap,electronic,can be extended for remote ballasting, Im thinking more ballasts give more options and if one fails you still have light, when my icecap goes I will put mine on multiple ballasts just for the dusk/dawn option
ATI Blue + and Korallen Fiji purple
compared to vho bulbs $ wise you can get extra colors for trial and still be ahead

Going to look into this more too. Ive always liked the looks of VHO actinics but they are getting harder and harder to find and ive read that they will be no more sometime soon.

If you can get a LED unit for a reasonable price, then that's the way I would go. Some units are equally 250W halides, yet only run at 120W. You could mix up the bulb combo for colour, but also as a primary light source.

Well we were all set to get 4x 30" reefbrite blue LEDs for about $500 but i had a question on the description. So i called Premium Aquatics and asked my question and then i explained the set up we have now and what we were trying to achieve (better coral fluorescence) and the person i was talking to (Jeremy i think) recommended just replacing the VHO bulbs with new super actinic VHO just like we already have. I really had to take that into consideration because why would a retailer who i was getting ready to buy either of these from recommend the $50 option when i was just considering spending $500+ on something thats supposed to be better?

So anyway i ordered 2x 60"VHO bulbs and we will see what new bulbs will do and if they dont give us the glow we want we will revisit this subject and try something else.

Thanks for all the input

Yea they are good folks that is why I do business with them.....I will have pics of the Reef Brite tomorrow once it gets delivered.....It won't take long for me to have it hooked up and mounted....I have always had good luck with VHO actinics, I haven't found one T-5 that compares in my opinion in color fluorescence.....But these LEDs are supposed to be sweet....We shall see....

Very interested to see them. We were all ready to get them but figured we would try this first. If it dosent work out i think we will give them a go

Well I got the Reef Brite and all I can say is for 12 3w Leds this thing is far to bright to look at it for very long.....It is far better then the 2 T-5s I had. It really quite a differant light on the tank then the fluorescent lights. Very clean and crisp as opposed to washed out and defused....I haven't had the chance toget pics yet but I will get some before and afters.....I might add another one at some point in the future, I might have to slowly acclimate the corals and clams to it since it is putting out about 2x the par of the tow T-5s.....I hate going to RC but Premium Aquatics has a thread about them in thier forum and discusses out put of these lights....They are dimmable as well on the side of the power supply there is a tiny nut you can turn. It can be dimmed from 15w to 24w. At 24 I couldn't look at for more then a few seconds.

Post pics when you can and let us know how you like them.

Did you get the all blue ones and do they make your corals fluores?

Originally Posted by Azurel

Well I got the Reef Brite and all I can say is for 12 3w Leds this thing is far to bright to look at it for very long.....It is far better then the 2 T-5s I had. It really quite a differant light on the tank then the fluorescent lights. Very clean and crisp as opposed to washed out and defused....I haven't had the chance toget pics yet but I will get some before and afters.....I might add another one at some point in the future, I might have to slowly acclimate the corals and clams to it since it is putting out about 2x the par of the tow T-5s.....I hate going to RC but Premium Aquatics has a thread about them in thier forum and discusses out put of these lights....They are dimmable as well on the side of the power supply there is a tiny nut you can turn. It can be dimmed from 15w to 24w. At 24 I couldn't look at for more then a few seconds.

Definately acclimatise your corals mate, the LED's have more punch than people think. I know a guy who killed a few corals due to the stress of too much light, too soon.

I got the all blue......The MH turned off last night and my tank looked like a black light poster......It looks so awesome.....I LOVE these lights.....I agree Blackjack they do have more punch then people think....I couldn't believe it to be honest....They LEDs are 3w Cree powered up to 2.2 watts for longevity. If they powered them at max that would really kill off a bit of usable life....I bought a digital timer to put them on so I don't have to unplug every night and make it easier to slowly acclimate the corals and clams....I will have pics today.

Well I like my VHO's and gonna keep them as long as I can get them, since I use 6 footers. I still like the VHO color better then T5's IMO. I have Icecap ballasts so I can switch mine over to 4 4 footers when it comes time but holding out as long as I can.

Like idea of LED's but until there profected and cost comes down some I'm sticking with my MH. I think these new plasma bulbs are gonna be the next thing and there about the same cost. Fixture to light a 6 FT area gonna cost around $3000 initial start up and the bulbs have a long life and par is alot higher then LED's.

Originally Posted by Azurel

I got the all blue......The MH turned off last night and my tank looked like a black light poster......It looks so awesome.....I LOVE these lights.....I agree Blackjack they do have more punch then people think....I couldn't believe it to be honest....They LEDs are 3w Cree powered up to 2.2 watts for longevity. If they powered them at max that would really kill off a bit of usable life....I bought a digital timer to put them on so I don't have to unplug every night and make it easier to slowly acclimate the corals and clams....I will have pics today.

So your getting good coral fluorescence from them? How about when the MH are on?

Originally Posted by chris&barb

So your getting good coral fluorescence from them? How about when the MH are on?

As much if not more then the 2 T-5s I had.....When the lights are out it is so far beyond what T-5s or VHO ever gave me.....It is truly a black light poster of Fluorescence...

The word pic's is just screaming in my head!

I screwed up.....I had about 30 pic before and after ended up reformatting my card. So now they are all gone....Dumb ass. I will get some pics of now and we can compare from old pics......I will take some night pics tonight so you can see that as well....I ordered an Icecap moonlight retro led bulb today as well.....

Originally Posted by Azurel

As much if not more then the 2 T-5s I had.....When the lights are out it is so far beyond what T-5s or VHO ever gave me.....It is truly a black light poster of Fluorescence...

Wow that sounds great. Cant wait to see the pics