vho lights

[produceb]

I just got in a 36' vho light bulb and 24' vho light bulb. I put them with other normal output florescent lights from my lfs. When I put them in they do not look as bright as my other lights. Is this because they are blue, or is this because my ballast is not strong enough?

[tecwzrd]

The bulbs wouldn't light up if your ballast wasn't strong enough. It's because of the spectrum (blue) versus power. What wattage and types of bulbs did you buy?

[produceb]

I will have to look when I get home for all the details, that info is good to know, they have no problem coming on just not as bright as thought they would be. One is a pink light one is a blue actinic. I know the wattage is 36'- 95w 24'- 75w, no details thank you

[tecwzrd]

Sounds like a Super Actinic R Spectrum (very blue) and the other a 50/50 type of bulb. Knowing the Kelvin rating (i.e. 10,000K, 6500K, 14,000K, ect...) would be helpful.

Did you upgrade to house corals or just for more light? You will need a little more wattage to house even medium light corals IMO. I assume your tank is an Oceanic (36.5 x 18.5 x 21.5)

[produceb]

I have 2 other regular flourscent corallife maybe 14000 and 10000 type - I had my watts at 95w 36'vho +75w 24' vho+20 w 24'+30w-36' =220w for a 58 gallon

I was thinking this would be okay for most corals, as long as I didnt put them on the bottom, I am I right. I will post all the exact lights this evening to make sure. Thanks for the help. I am thinking of adding some small coral and a few fish this weekend.

[Lance M.]

3.8 wpg That should be ok for mushrooms, leathers, zoos. How deep is the tank? and why did you buy all those different sized/different flourscent bulbs? That is confusing, 4 different bulbs.

36'' VHO 95watt
24'' VHO 75watt
24'' NO 20watt
36'' NO 30watt

Is that right?

[produceb]

that is correct.
I thought I could get away with that. I have 2 metal sheets that hold 2 bulbs each, one is 24" the other is 36". They both have there own ballast. I quess i will get another vho bulb to get over 4 watts per gallon. The tank is only 21ish inches deep and there is 2 inches of sand. Lots of live rock. Will put any coral higher on the rock. I will not be getting crazy with coral just some small pieces. Mostly I enjoy catching my own fish. I know i will add a french, queen angels and rock beauty so they can all be hit or miss with coral from what I read. I have never had any coral before and have not had a tank for 7 years. Thank you for the help, my main concern was if my two ballasts were strong enough and they seem to be. I bought the tank on e-bay and sanded and finshed. It apppears the set up was nce, for what i want to do.

[tecwzrd]

Your current lighting should be fine for most medium light corals but an additional light wouldn't hurt.

The Queen & French Angels are not only coral nippers but also get huge (15+") and need a tank 3+ times the size of yours. The Rock Beauty Angelfish is a difficult fish to keep.

[produceb]

I have kept angels for years, sometimes hard to get started eating, since all mine are caught by me. I had one queen for probally 3-4 years before it jumped out, it was in a bigger tank built into the wall and the bathroom was the way you got to the back to feed. It would get so excited everytime the door opened, one day he jumped and no one knew. The thing is it never got bigger than 4-5 inches, maybe grew to tank, it changed coral scheme from juvy to adult but seemed to stop growing. Mostly I like the very small angels when they are not too bothersome and much more colorful. Then I will swap them out when they get bigger. I will take to lfs . I enjoy catching new fish, so I think this will work and hopefully keep me with credit at the lfs. We will see I am going diving this weekend if the weather stays nice.