If you havn't ordered the lights yet I would be a little leary of them. I have been using T5 VHO for 2 years now (replaced once) and have just recently scraped them in favor of halides. I whole heartedly disagree with you guys who run VHO's for more than 9 mo or so. I have found that the tank quality begins to deteriorate around the six month mark and goes really crappy atfer 8-9 mo. Being a student I stretch my bulbs as long as I can but I won't make my corals suffer because I am cheap. It is possible to sustain your corals with old flouresent bulbs but the growth rates will fall off the chart. My actinics didn't change much though when they got old. So from my experience, I would only recommend T5's or any flouresent for that matter as a supplental lighting unit in actinic spectrum.
Rick
|