Non VHO bulbs with Icecap?

[hng]

Anybody around here use non-VHO bulbs with their Icecap ballasts? I read an old article that says it runs the bulb with the same light output and the company's website says the same too. I was thinking about trying it to save money, but I wasn't sure if it was a bunch of baloney.

[seaham358]

it may or may not be true.. IMO lighting is one place you should not try and cut corners if you have corals. How much money can you save by doing this? Theres got to be a loss in light quality somewhere, color, output. spectrium. ??

[LiquidLunch]

Yes, indeed. I have (2) VHO 50/50's and (2) NO Daylights from Lowes or HD. It's a nice combo.
http://www.icecapinc.com/rev1.htm

I look for a daylight bulb with:
-6500k
-2000+ lumens
-CRI index of 90 or higher

You'd be surprised how many $3 bulbs fit that description!

[goodfortune]

From what I have read and seen, IC ballasts will pretty much overdrive any lamp they run, including NO (Normal Output) Fluorescents. The downside (at least for reefers) is that the daylight bulbs that you can buy at HD or "that other place" are (usually) rated for 6500K, which will make a display tank appear yellowish and lacking in vivid color.

Even if you buy 10K NO lamps, they usually are not that much less in $$$ than VHO lamps themselves. However, if you are setting up a frag tank, and don't care about aesthetics, then overdriven NO appears to be a viable option.

BTW, overdriven NO lamps are used quite a bit for lighting FW planted tanks.There are many references on the web on how to wire a non-IC electronic ballast to overdrive NO lamps. If I can find any when I get the chance, I will post some of the links here.

HTH,
Michael

Originally Posted by hng

Anybody around here use non-VHO bulbs with their Icecap ballasts? I read an old article that says it runs the bulb with the same light output and the company's website says the same too. I was thinking about trying it to save money, but I wasn't sure if it was a bunch of baloney.

[hng]

Hmm...thanks Michael. I guess I was just trying to save a few bucks here and there. I like the blueish color of my tank so I guess I'll keep buying the URI bulbs.

[Doug1]

I have run 2x 6500k NO bulbs and 2x actinics and its fine, unless you really want that deep water blue look, but 4' tubes will work in a pinch, thats the nice thing as opposed to PC lights

[rayjay]

I run two philips actinic 03's, and two GE Daylight 40's on my IC 660.
Same tank has four regular ballasted NO's, two and two.
With the lightmeter on just the regular ballasts and then on just the IC's, the light intensity is just a touch more than 50% more with the overdriven lamps.

[hng]

Thanks Rayjay, I was hoping someone would measure and give us unbiased data. So, it sounds like the overdriven lamp is more like an HO than a VHO in intensity.

[rayjay]

I don't know how "UNBIASED" I might be, as all I use over my tanks are NO lighting. (ten tanks)
I get crucified weekly for "not providing the basics for my tanks" from people who "know".
Trouble is, I started in Jan 94, but didn't get a computer for many years, and when I did, I found out I couldn't keep what I keep with NO lighting, nevermind I had been doing it fo rmany years already.
The main reason I do it is because I can buy regular ballasts used for $5 to $7, and GE Daylight lamps for $4, with the Philips actinic around $11 when I buy in bulk.
This was much cheaper than LFS lamps sold for the purpose and which the spectrum was the same as the Daylight lamp basically.
The reason I bought the IC 660, was to attempt to keep sps corals by overdriving the lamps.
Unfortunately, the only sps corals that I had any luck with were the hydnaphora so obviously my NO's are no good for sps.
However, besides the hydnaphora, I keep crocea, squamosa clams, all kinds of LPS corals and of course, softies.
I have been thinking of splurging though and buying some T-5's with SLR's from IC, to overdrive on the 660 and see if that will be enough to keep sps.
I have seen a couple of local tanks with that set up, overdriving T-5's and with the SLR's on, the intensity is amazing, although I haven't been able to compare meter readings because I would feel awkward asking someone to remove their hoods for me so I can set up and measure the light intensity.
After also seeing VHO lamps on a 660, the T-5 lighting "appears" to be more intent with the SLR's on them.
The only holdback for me is the price of replacing the lamps every year.
As for the HO comparison, I'm not really up on how many watts the HO lamps use but guess it would be approximate to the overdriven NO's.