Which URI bulbs to use??

[wastedincome420]

Hello all!!
I have two Ice Cap 660 ballasts and a 5ft long 105g Oceanic tank.
I plan to run the ballast at max and use a total of 8 48" VHO URI bulbs. (from what I hear URI's are the best ) OK I know I want to run all (4) the super atinic bulbs on one ballast. and run the others on the second Icecap. My ? should I use the "Aqua sun" or the "super white" or should Iuse 2 of each?? What do ya think??

I figure with this type of set up I will get a total of 880watts of VHO
Think I be ok with a reef till I can invest in some MH light??Was thinking about getting 2 IceCap Metal Halide 250w ballast's
Maybe with 20k bulbs, Which would be a good bulb??

[Ninong]

Can you fit 8 VHO lamps over that tank? Anyway, I think that you will be spending more money going with 8 VHO lamps than you would if you went with metal halides. Remember that VHO lamps have to be replaced twice as often as metal halide lamps.

Why 48" 110w VHO lamps? Why not 60" 140w VHO lamps? You could run three 140w VHO lamps on an IceCap 660 ballast.

As far as the combination of URI VHO lamps, you really can't go wrong as long as you choose approximately 1/2 Super Actinic and the rest either all Actinic White or a combination of Actinic White and AquaSun.

Ninong

[wastedincome420]

Well my canopy is just a bit under 61" and if I tried to use 60" bulbs with good endcaps it woldn't fit;) Plus using 4 48" I can get more watts out of the 660 then running 3 60" bulbs. I hope in the future to cut 2 of the daylight bulbs and add 2 250w MH on IceCaps.

[naser]

remember your canopy isnt as long as your tank. its like an inch or more longer.

[billzie]

My old reef was a 125g 6' long tank, I had 3 5' VHO, 1 50/50, 2 actinic. I never kept sps, but did have some lps with the rest softies. I liked the appearance very much and the corals did well to boot. If you're going to go with 4' tubes, you might want to try some cheapo "sun" bulbs from Home Depot first, Sandy Cohen wrote about this a few years ago and had good success running the NO bulbs on a Icecap ballast, the IC with over juice the NOs increasing their PAR. This is a cheaper alternative, at about $5 per bulb you could always supplement with a few VHOs. A buddy of mine threw on a growlight on his 4x110w when a 50/50 burned out prematurely, and we never noticed much difference. FWIW, Bill.

[Rin]

I've got 2 x 250 watt 6.5K MHs with 2 x 110 VHO 50/50 and 2 x 110 VHO Super actinics. The MHs aren't the crisp white light of a 10 or 12K bulb, but the Super Actinics balance out the color very nicely. I may replace my 50/50s with more Super Actinics to raise the overall color temperature a little more.

good luck