Oldtimer restarting 75G Reef from scratch - VHO's vs LED's, recommendations? (1 Viewer)

[mikehulen]

Former Marsh-Reef member returning to the hobby after several years, and setting up my 75 Gallon reef tank once again. My old VHO lighting is shot (icecap 660 ballast is dead), so before I look at re-investing in new VHO components, what are the pros and cons of converting over to LED lighting for a reef tank that housing live rock, softies, inverts and a just a few fish.

My previous lighting setup was fairly basic, 4-4' vho bulbs, 2 actinic blue and 2 50/50's. Worked well, but threw off a lot of heat. Would an LED (strips, pendants, etc) setup provide similar lighting capabilities with less heat and power consumption. What kind of cost differences might I be looking at in switching over vs simply getting a new ballast ($135) and new VHO bulbs (~$100) to rebuild what I had before.

Been away from the hobby for several years, and LED's were just starting to get some attention when I had to take my tanks down. Looking at several articles over the last few days, I am totally out of my depth trying to decipher it all.

All advice appreciated.

Mike

 

[cacarnold3]

Welcome back! I'd say the biggest difference you will see is in the heat/ electric usage with LED's instead of the VHO's. LED's cost more initially then you would pay for the new ballast and bulbs but, you won't ever have to replace the bulbs in the LED's. In 6 months you'll be replacing the $100 bulbs again with the VHO's. There are some great LED fixtures out there but you need to have a good idea of what you want the lights to do for you. I currently have tanks running Radion Gen 1's with the TIR wide angle lens upgrade, a Reef Breeder Value Fixture, a Current Orbit and a Kessil a150 10K pendant. If you'd like to see these in person and review the pros and cons, I'd be happy to show you. I have also used the AI Sol Blue fixture in the past as well as a VHO fixture. I have likes and dislikes with all of them.