[reefburnaby]

Troy,

Just to clarify, IMHO, I don't recommend VHOs because a Iwasaki setup costs about the same. At least with Iwasaki, you know that you have enough light -- VHOs are very setup and reflector sensitive. If you are really tight on cash, then I recommend the overdrive NO (T8).

On to the questions....

Troy,

One WH7 will power one (1) VHO to full power -- that is 110 Watts to the tips of the 4 foot tube and 165W to 6 foot tubes. 220W to 8 foot tubes... So, no you can not drive 2 (two) VHO to full power with one WH7.

If you are clever, you only need 3 (three) WH7 to power 4 (four) VHOs. You'll understand when you look at the wiring diagram.

Icecap can be doing a number of things. It can be driving harmonics in to the tubes (i.e high energy bursting) to get more light power to the tubes with less average power. That means it drives lots of energy for short durations, but not too much so that the tubes get too hot or break down. In some ways, we are doing that with the overdrive NO. It is true the switching ballasts (i.e. electronic) will produce a more solid output (rather than flickering).

However, since I don't own an Icecap, I have nothing to compare against. Since Icecap is fairly secretive about their technology, all we have are guesses. A simple probe with a scope (oscilloscope) should answer all of our questions to what it is doing. Any takers ? Please don't do this if you have no idea what you are doing -- it can smoke a scope really quick.

As for VHO bulb cost...they are expensive. You can buy ballasts that are less damaging to the tubes (i.e. enhance tube life). These are called program start ballasts -- IMHO, program start and Icecap start are roughly the same.

IMHO, tube life is largely dependent on the starting technique used and how many times the tube has been started. The more times it has been started, the less life it has. As the tube ends (electrodes) get damaged by the starter and blacken, the electrodes become less efficient and less light is produced.

SPS and fluorescents...

Wow...we are going from one contraverse to another. Please don't flame but...I am growing SPS on overdrive NO (two 6500K and one actinic - 240W total power consumed) in my 90. So, far I have a couple of montis and acros growing in the tank. They are not growing like wildfire, but they do grow. They are the orange/green/brown variety. When I feel brave enough, I'll buy a blue acro frag and see if I can keep them and keep them blue. [img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img] Please don't try this at home unless you have take a light measurement of your tank. You need at least 7000 lux of light or 150uE/s to keep basic SPS.

- Victor.