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Lighting Basics/Questions

539 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by  DereksReef, 
D
Ok, so I have been posting and I guess am going back to school myself, back to basics. If I remember correctly the more blue spectrums of light actually penetrate the water better than yellows and whites? So currently I have 2 white VHO bulbs, and two actinic VHO bulbs, 110W each. And have 2-175W halides.....20k XM bulbs. I dont have the money currently to replace the VHO's for T-5s currently, unless my ARO ballasts can run T-5's at a proper rate and not too hot. I cant find that info as of yet. So questions are this......my bulbs are all getting up to a yr maybe more. What would you recommend as most important place to start as far as replacing. And if you have any info on those ARO bulbs running T-5's it would be awesome.
Thanks
Dave
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J
The halide bulbs first, than probably the actinic bulbs. I remember some of your other thread when you were asking about your lighting and 2 175w halides is pretty decent lighting all in itself and you will get more par from a less than 20K bulb.

So pick something in a mid range color and add some new super actinic VHO'S and maybe just conserve some electric and leave the other two white bulbs off as that cost a lot to run and don't add that much par anyway.
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D
Lighting

What brand bulb does everyone recommend.....XM's are cheap, are they good?
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I don't run halides anymore but, XM's are good for the price, I liked Radiums better.

If you want to keep cost down, 1000bulbs.com has plusrites for super cheap. These are good inexpensive bulbs that last 6-8 months before any color shifting etc... They don't last as long as the big name expensive halides, but they do a great job, offer good growth and make your coral pop. If cost is important, try them. If you don't like them, your out like $20... you can keep em for backups if you want.

I also like phoenix and ushio, but they weren't my favorite. XMs have great blues, but radiums made my coral grow like weeds :jester:

I'm an LED man nowadays... I'm working on swapping everything that direction :)
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