Reef Lights VS Reefer Lights

Nocuous

New Member
I have a really good coral reef tank set up with pc and vho lighting. Its very bright and has a very high watt out put. Could I use the same system to grow plants? I know the hood would work but I think I would have to change the bulbs. Right now I have two pc 10k and two super atinic vho. Thanks for the help.
 
My first hobby is Marine tanks and I do alot of research on many areas of saltwater fish/corals so I have a decent bit of experience here but I wouldn't say my opinion is anything other than that... opinion, but should be pretty straight forward regardless.

Firstly PC and VHO ARE flouros, just not the same shape as what most mj growers are used to seeing. VHOs will give you more intensity and thus greater light penetration, but even the PCs will do better than the other flouros out there except T5HOs which are the best flouros you can get. As for color you would do best with the lower K temps. The 10Ks will work, especially for vegging, but most plants grow better with around 6700K (the more yellow looking light). I dont know if the actinics will do much as the spectrum is so narrow and the wrong wavelength of light. Im not saying the actinics are useless, but I cant see them doing too much for the plants. I would look for 6700K or lower ideally but the 10K will be fine. Unless you plan on stepping up to MH/MV/HPS then I would keep the PCs and VHOs because they really do put out more light than pretty much all other flouros out there, just try and find new bulbs to replace those actinics. Hope this helps

Rick
 
Back
Top Bottom