VHO Lighting Questions

jzdziarski · 10-01-2002, 02:22 PM

I've finally ordered my new VHO Lighting for the new 100gal reef setup. This will be an upgrade from 160 Watts to 420 Watts. I had a couple questions about upgrading though, if anyone has any answers...

1. I've heard you can photo-shock corals when increasing the lighting. Would it be better to run 2 of the 3 bulbs for the first week or two (280 watts as opposed to 420) and then fire up #3 when they get used to that?

2. The sales guy told me I didn't need a reflector for VHO lamps (this is an IceCap Retrofit Kit) Is this bogus or do they have internal reflectors?

3. If they come with internal reflectors do I need to set the bulb up pointing in any particular direction? (That may be a stupid question)

4. For a reef tank should I go with 1 actinic blue and 2 actinic whites, or 1 blue, 1 white, and 1 sun? I don't want that 'pink' tint to the tank and want to promote strong corraline growth.

Mouse · 10-01-2002, 03:09 PM

1) yes you should aclimate them to the brighter light, either by the way you mentioned or by difusing the light somehow.

2) Reflectors increase the amount of light going to the tank, and act as a bit of a heatshield in some fixtures. The more light the better

3) IF they have internal reflectors then yes, they ned to be oriented twards the tank.

4) not to sure on how the appearance would be with the combos, someone else should step in soon though...

jzdziarski · 10-01-2002, 03:15 PM

How can you tell whether or not they're oriented towards the tank?

Minnreefer · 10-01-2002, 03:53 PM

You will not easily be able to run them with just 2 bulbs, so just have the VHO on for a few hours the first day and slowely add time over a couple of weeks. When you fire up the bulbs you will be able to see the bright side of the bulb. It does not hurt to at least paint your hood white to help on the reflection. I would say you want 1 blue and 2 white, are these 5' bulbs?

Jon

jzdziarski · 10-01-2002, 03:57 PM

Yeah 3 x 60" Bulbs. Why is it so difficult to run just two bulbs? Does the ballast have problems when there's an open circuit?

Minnreefer · 10-01-2002, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jzdziarski
Yeah 3 x 60" Bulbs. Why is it so difficult to run just two bulbs? Does the ballast have problems when there's an open circuit?

Yes

Rick O · 10-01-2002, 05:05 PM

The bulbs probably won't fire unless you have all three in there. I would just cut back on the time for the first couple of weeks then ramp up thirty minutes a day each week until you're up to twelve hours per day.

If you're using URI bulbs (and you should be

) then they don't have internal reflectors. Painting the inside of your canopy white works real well.

For bulb selection I would go with all Aquasun. I know that not everyone will agree with this but that will give you the most intensity and you will be able to keep almost any coral you want.

Geoff · 10-01-2002, 05:05 PM

If the bulbs have internal reflectors it should be obvious which way is up. There will be a silver side this should be up, furthest away from the water surface. I believe most are non-reflector, so adding a reflector would be good. I would add a reflector after a while, so as not to light-shock the critters again.

G~

jzdziarski · 10-01-2002, 05:06 PM

wow 12 hours? I have always read that the photo period should be 8-10 hours max. I must be serious under-exposing my coral as i'm on about 9 hours.

Rick O · 10-01-2002, 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jzdziarski
wow 12 hours? I have always read that the photo period should be 8-10 hours max. I must be serious under-exposing my coral as i'm on about 9 hours.

Depends on what you're keeping. When I had VHO only I ran them for twelve hours. With MH I run them for nine. I also had acropora under the VHO and they did pretty well.

jzdziarski · 10-01-2002, 05:14 PM

I've been using just plain old flourescent up until the VHO's show up. My corals include:

- Orange Tube Coral (lighting is pretty irrelevent on this one)
- Moon Brain
- Torch
- Frogspawn
- Colony polyps
- Finger Leather
- Striped Shrooms
- Yellow Polyps

I also have a tube anemone and some other unidentified polyps and whatnot on the live rock.

Doug1 · 10-02-2002, 02:26 AM

Rick??????? My URI Aquasun have internal reflectors.....
As far as the Icecap ballast, they(660 and 430) are fairly tolerent of the bulbs
The 660 should run 3 5' tubes, but if they are wired for 3 bulbs they wont work if ones missing or burnt out. On a 5' tank I would do the 660 with 4x110 watts and stagger them to cover. Its a bit more light(OK 20 watts) but the 4 foot bulbs are very common, and you can
substitute, standard 40 watt NO bulbs in place of VHO with no harm, no foul, and about 80% VHO output

Rick O · 10-02-2002, 06:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Doug1
Rick??????? My URI Aquasun have internal reflectors.....

Oops.

It's been so long since I changed my bulbs that I forgot. I'll go sit in the corner now,

Doug1 · 10-02-2002, 12:08 PM

Hehehehe, I thought maybe they had changed the design since i last bought bulbs back in ,,,,oh well

I think 12 hrs is fairly typical time frame, with MH they dont run as long as the actinics