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Duro-Test Vita-lite vs Coralife Trichromatic bulbs (and venting them)

Since you can't buy Vita-lites anymore, this test is of little merit to
anyone but current Duro-Test fans. Fortunately, it also means it can be
completely unscientific and no one will really care:)

Comparing 72" 160w VHO bulbs head to head with each pair plugged into Icecap
430s...

The short of it is I think they are a very good replacement. They are
slightly bluer, but not nearly as blue as the URI bulbs. They have at least
equivalent color rendering. Their CRI is rated at 94 vs the Duro-Test at 91,
but I cannot see any noticeable rendering difference. They are noticeably
brighter than my 8 month old Duro-Tests, so I can't really compare them on
this point fairly. Overall, I'm quite pleased to find something that look OK
to me, but now I have to wait to see what the plants think.

While I was at it, I created a passive ventilation setup for my hood. It
works remarkably well. The hood went from "pretty darn warm" to about room
temperature. This achieved the desired effect. My heating cables kicked in a
few hours after the lights went out and ran until nearly noon today. In the
summer months, my cables have hardly ever turned on in the past. I have no
idea why soffit vents for the hood and relying on convection currents for
cooling never crossed my mind in the past.

I put up 2 new pics on my web site showing the hood vents, and the MAJOR
trimming I did. I thinned out a 5 gallon bucket worth of plant matter. I
even got to see most of the fish today:)

Jon Wilson
http://www.knology.net/~jwilson/plants.htm