t5 or vho

I'd definitely go with the T5's. They are alot more efficient (if you have decent reflectors) and with 4 bulbs instead of two, you will have more color options.

I'd probably skip the 10K's and go with a 6.7K, a couple 12K or 14K's and only 1 actinic or maybe skip the actinic all together. After all, do you really need your frag tank to be that blue or do you want growth?

-JB

 

+1 for T5. I was reading a lighting article and VHOs were described as being "old technology". Now I would not say that they don't have their place, but T5's seem to be newer, more efficient and seem to be more readily available.

--AJ

 

for a frag tank i would definately do T5's better PAR. and more options for color temperature

 

No disagreement there.  T5s are more efficient and have more output than VHOs.  However, T5s cannot replicate the color output of VHO actinics.  Even the company UVL (formerly URI) could not replicate their VHO actinic output in the T5 format.  IMO, VHO gives a tank that certain "pop" in color that T5s cannot do.  Hence the reason why I still like VHO better.  But since we are talking about a frag tank, MH or T5s would be the way to go if you want rapid growth.

 

That's really good info.  I would not have thought about using a specific type of bulbs just for one spectrum of light.  Thanks for sharing.
--AJ

 

For a frag tank who cares what the color looks like. I mean if your fragging and want rapid growth so you can sell and frag more often then skip actinics and make it yellow. 6500 t5 or mh. I have a few ice cap 175 ballasts with 10k ushio or xm bulbs still laying around if halide is an option for you. If you want awesome growth id say you cant go wrong with MH.

Halide cannot compete with T5 when it comes to color but I think for pure growth only, id do MH. Im know there will be lots of disagrements but thats my 2cents