VHO Lighting

[VAFLYER]

Hi All,
First time poster, long time "lurker". Great board BTW, I see mostly great advice and friendly people, who could ask for more?

Anyway, I just got off the phone with James from Lampsnow, what a great place!!! If you didnt take advantage of the coupon that was going around you surely lost out!

Thanks for posting that for everyone whoever you are!

I ordered a 4 bulb VHO ballast and 4 48" bulbs, 2 URI actinic and 2 12K's and am curious as what to expect when I start to make the transition. I understand gradually increasing the photo period and everything but my concern is whether or not there will be any major algea outbreaks (I currently don't have problems with algea)... will my softies burn?

Thanks for any help!

[newreefman1]

I just got the package. You can see what I am coming from on my website at http://members.home.net/jasonco6

150 watt HQI halide on a nano.

Heres a pic of my lights lit on the tank Fresh this morning. I popped a few frag rocks with a mushroom or polyp to see how they like the light and to get a better feel. Ill have the light and tank setup this afternoon/tomorrow.

[newreefman1]

Ps. Thats a 60 gallon tank. I have 2 10k URI and 2 Super actinic. Its a very nice light purple color. Seems intense up at top..I like that.

Heres a pic of the bulbs.

[VAFLYER]

Right on newreefman, I agree I like the color of the URI's too. I'm anxious to receive them and set them up, unfortuneatly I live on the east coast so shipping from there by ground takes a couple of months ....well it seems that way, I should get them next Wednesday or Friday. Anybody have any ideas how this upgrade is going to effect my reef? Will I have to move anything lower in the tank?

[organicreefer]

vaflyer,whats youre current lighting ?what corals?etc.etc.
when increasing the amount of light,as you mentioned,decreasing the photoperiod and slowly increasing it will work,but better is raisng the fixture and slowly lowering it.

[VAFLYER]

Hey Organic, thanks for replying. I currently have a 110 gal with a 220 watt PC fixture. I am adding 440 watts of VHO. In the tank I have various mushrooms and zooanthids, white star polyps, yellow polyps, calustrea, galaxea, bubble, leather's, xenia, sun polyps's and gorgonian's. The sun polyp's and gorgonian are tucked away under shelf rock and recieve minimal indirect lighting.

My plan was this; I currently run the PC's 12 hours a day, 730 to 730. I have a NO 20K bulb come on an hour before and two hours after. I was going to have the VHO come on at 12 and the PC's go off then have the VHO go off at 3 and have the PC's come back on till their normal shut down time of 730.

So basically the tank will have 220 watts of PC from 730 to 1200 then 440 watts of VHO till 3 then back to 220 with the PC's on. I would increase the photo period of the VHO's by one hour a week until I have 12 hours of straight VHO. Then I would start adding the PCs back into the mix, start with 3 hours again for a total of 660. Does this sound slow enough to keep from burning/bleaching anything?

Do you think I should forego the PC lights all together and just leave it just VHO? I don't plan on putting any thing in there except softies, polyps and shrooms, no hard corals. I am setting up a 155 bow for hard corals and plan on MH / VHO combo there.

I can't really move the bulbs, I have a custom built hood and want to mount the bulbs directly to it. The PC are a JBJ fixture and sit directly on the tank about an inch above.

Thanks for the help

[Ironreef]

IMO if you can run the pc and vho . Thats really not to much light even for softies in a 110g tank. Your softies will love the extra lighting. an easy way to acclimate them is to run just 2 vho for a few weeks then add 1 more then run all 4 along with you pc. That way you won't need to change them all at once either= won't shock them when you replace them and you don't need to buy all the light all at once is $$ is tight. But it's usually cheaper if you spent the$$ and buy them at once = save on shipping but sometimes you can't IME

[VAFLYER]

Hey Ironreef, thanks for the reply. I was thinking maybe I should keep the PC on there too, for a total of 6 watts per gal. Everything has been doing fine but my growth rates are slow. Hopefully the extra light will be just what I need.

The ballast though, if I understand correctly wont let you run anything but four bulbs, in other words I have to put em all on at one time. Do you think the photoperiod I have planned will work?

[Starmstr]

IMHE, ramping up between the different lighting intensity configurations is not as drastic as people tend to make it out. For instance the difference between 175 and 250 MH is minimal in terms of intensity or par and the jump between the various VHO bulbs is LESS due to their diffused pattern over the length of the bulb (i.e. not point source). So take it from experience just turn them on. The two exceptions are ramping up to 400 MH and going from totally dark systems.

Starmstr

[VAFLYER]

Starmstr, so I can plug em in, in addition to the existing PC for the full 12 hours right away? Should I expect things to close up for a while? The tank has been setup for a year and a half on 220 watts of PC.

[organicreefer]

IME,IMHO etc etc..,you should definitely acclimate them,cant do anything but help.

[VAFLYER]

Organic, maybe then I should just let the PCs run their normal 12 hours and just add the VHO on top of that starting with several hours then build up to the full 12????

[organicreefer]

yes that is what i would do.

[Ironreef]

I was thinking IC ballast =run 2-3 and 4 but I do agree with acclimating them. When I had my 55g i ran 4_11-w vho got a colt from LFS they had 2 160w??? Whatever 6' are. They said the bulbs were old but my colt went into shock= didn't acclimate it. Never had to but I should have know it was dark burgandy color. it was closed for @2mo opened up a pinker color. I would acclimate like you said pc full vho few hours at a time. It wouldn't hurt. Your adding 440w even though its vho you never know.

[VAFLYER]

OK the plan is to add the VHO's on top off the PC's, I appreciate everyones advice, thank you. The lights should arrive today or Friday, I can't wait!

[Starmstr]

For those whom are doubting my recomendations I'd like you to back up your thoughts with numbers. Seriously 220watts of pc is not as dark as most lfs however the addition of 440 of vho still doesn't equil the intensity of most mh units. Furthermore even at best the lighting intensity of the total unit isn't even equil to sunrise.

By the way for the most part I agree with Organic on most of his views however more post doesn't equate with more knowledge.

[Ironreef]

I don't need # I put a softie from old vho from a larger system and the softie bleached got it's new alga and came back. Took 2-3mo the tank only had 4-110w vho= mine. 2 160 w theres. lfs But I will agree it's not much more lighting to add but why take a chance. it's simple to acclimate slower.

[organicreefer]

the change could be made all at once,you just never know how it will affect any individual coral.safer to acclimate,and more natural as well,think change of seasons.
ime, any change in lighting can have a bad effect.when i changed from a 400w 55k to a sunburst(less light)my tubipora coral closed up and when it opend it was only like a third of the polyps ,it has since "adjusted " to the new light and is back 90%,after one year.
besides every single book i have says to acclimate,based largely on studies done in the wild.
starmstr is certainly right,that more posts doesnt equate to more knowledge.
more posts equates to a bigger mouth .

[VAFLYER]

Hey all, the lights came in Wednesday night and man are those things bright...

What a major difference it makes in the way the tank looks, the colors really stand out nicely! I could really tell how much my PC bulbs had shifted

Anyway, I'm taking a little bit of everybody's advice here and have decided to acclimate but not as slowly, Ive got the VHO's comin on for 6 hours mid cycle after a week or two Ill add another 2 hours, etc. I'll just keep an eye on everything and look for changes, that should be the best indicator.

Thanks again for all the help