T5's or VHO
- Thread starter jammerz
- Start date
It's entirely up to you if you use 20000 K or whatever, though if the truth be known there is more usable PAR in a 6500 for most of the things people keep. You can run most any bulb of any ballast, but there ARE differences between running different bulbs of different ballasts, Sanjay Yoshi has done a lot of work round this, and has produced a bunch of stats and charts showing how different 20K bulbs for example will react to a certain ballast. The differences can be significant.
FWIW on Fluorescents...
I don't believe NO bulbs burn out significantly quicker than a VHO bulb when they're overdriven, and you have to change VHO's to keep spectrum so often that the argument is moot anyway. You do get less than the wattage you'd believe though, ie overdriving a 20 with 30 will only really give you 25 watts equivalent.
If you think there's stuff you can't keep with T5's then frankly you've been drinking beer and seen too many adds. There are too many awesome tanks run off T5 only.
BUT I am actually a growing fan of halides for a couple good reasons. One is that I am unimpressed with having to have huge banks of fluor bulbs that need changing a lot. VHO is especially poor for this, and whil if I had I wouldn't change it, you'd have to be offered the stuff for a very good price OR be on another planet to consider buying it new. It's just old, and inefficient. I like to have simple maintenance setups, and MH do that for me.
Secondly glitter lines are not a trivial issue. The repeated focussing and unfocussing of light through the glitter line seems to have a powerful effect on zooanthellae, which is very beneficial
FWIW on Fluorescents...
I don't believe NO bulbs burn out significantly quicker than a VHO bulb when they're overdriven, and you have to change VHO's to keep spectrum so often that the argument is moot anyway. You do get less than the wattage you'd believe though, ie overdriving a 20 with 30 will only really give you 25 watts equivalent.
If you think there's stuff you can't keep with T5's then frankly you've been drinking beer and seen too many adds. There are too many awesome tanks run off T5 only.
BUT I am actually a growing fan of halides for a couple good reasons. One is that I am unimpressed with having to have huge banks of fluor bulbs that need changing a lot. VHO is especially poor for this, and whil if I had I wouldn't change it, you'd have to be offered the stuff for a very good price OR be on another planet to consider buying it new. It's just old, and inefficient. I like to have simple maintenance setups, and MH do that for me.
Secondly glitter lines are not a trivial issue. The repeated focussing and unfocussing of light through the glitter line seems to have a powerful effect on zooanthellae, which is very beneficial