question about light setup

[sativa101]

I am currently in the process of building my own light for my 125 gallon.my question is does anyone know much about vho t12 florescents? I bought a ballast that said it would run 2 72" vho with 168 watt per bulb rating.woudl it be enough light if I ran 2 ballasts for a total of 4 bulbs and 640 watts total? or would i be better off buying a set of halides for my tank? also if anyone can help me with wiring that would be great.

[charlie]

Alot will depend on what corals you want to have in your system. Or is this a fish only?
My personal preference would be to run 3 250w halides, aand use the VHO for actinic supplementation.

[sativa101]

I am planning on eventualy putting in some tridacnid clams and some stonys but for now I am just trying my hand with some mushrooms and polyps.also if I did 3 250s with my vho that would put me at a littlke over 11 watts a gallon wouldnt that cook my fish?

[charlie]

Don't worry about the watts per gallon, that is mostly outdated. If you are going to just do the softies for now, your VHO should be fine. Many people have had great success with softies and VHO. You can upgrade to the MH later, which if you plan on sps and clams, I would consider it a must. JMHO
Hope this helps, and good luck.

[sativa101]

thanx for the help I am going to do the vhos and then when I am ready for sps corals I can add to the vhos with mh I appreciate the help and will definatly be checking back often

[charlie]

Keep us updated!!!! Remember, we like it when you give us pics

[sativa101]

if you want to see some older pics CLICK HERE these are pics of my tank until today when i added 20 more lbs of rock