Basic VHO lighting questions

[gzeiger]

I want to upgrade the lighting on my 75-gallon tank but I have basically no idea what I'm looking at online and can't find any place locally that has VHO fixtures I can look at. I'm reasonably sure I can figure out how to wire things together if I had the pieces in front of me, but product descriptions are never complete enough for me to figure out what I would have to buy.

The tank currently has a shop light fixture with 2x48" 40W bulbs. If I bought this ballast and a couple bulbs, would I be able to set it up, or do I need other parts? ARO VHO Ballast, 220W - AquaCave

Also, what does "Raid start" mean? Would this start up on its own if it were plugged into a timer and just left on with power interrupted by the timer? It might just be a typo for "rapid start" but I don't know enough about it to be sure.

 

[jsoong]

VHO's are becoming obsolete .... The current sweet spot for light is T5-HO. <Best ones has individual polished reflector for each bulb.>

Advantage of the T5-HO is efficiency - more light per watts, cooler & bulbs lasts longer. A good T5-HO bulb/reflector will prob put out more light than the VHO, esp. if you are putting that into a shoplight.

The VHO ballasts, however, can run the T5-HO. Standard 4' T5-HO's are 54W, so you should be able to wire 4 to that ballast (but at least 2). <YMMV since that is not what the ballast is designed for.> So you could get the ballast & swap that with the shoplight ballasts & run VHO for a while & upgrade later if needed.

The VHO will fit standard T12 holders, although I would worry a bit about heat in a standard shoplight fixture. If you have completely gutted the shoplight & it is open inside the canopy, you *should* be OK if the canopy is well ventilated. I would be leery of leaving it in the original fixture. I have seen VHO shoplight at HD & that fixture has much more space for ventilation compared with the standard shoplight.

PS - a simpler way to upgrade your light is to add a second shoplight <should have room in a 75>, and change to T8's. <T8's use the same lampholder as the T12 & if you have an electronic ballast in the T12, it will work.> That is what I have running, 4x32W T8's. (This is equal to 160W NO, or a bit more than 2x54W T5 HO.)

 

[gzeiger]

Thanks. I posted this on 4 forums, and got lots of people saying "I bought that one, and it rocks!" (about evenly divided as to which one they liked though) but you're the first to explain anything.