SHO Aquarium Lights; Correct Information

Aquarium Forum Hall of Shame Part 4:
SHO Lamps/Lights
(including LED information)

Updated 6/27/09

This answer comes from Yahoo Answers:

Here is the question:
“SHO lighting, Marine Aquarium?
I had a friend who has her marine aquarium maintained by an aquarium tech add new lighting to her tank. He added SHO lights to her tank as he stated it is one of the newer advances in aquarium lighting for freshwater plants and marine reef.

She is real happy with the results, but I am unfamiliar with it.
Does anyone know more about SHO (I believe this stands for Super High Output) or where I might buy it?”

Here is the Answer:

Here is a little information, all it is, is a screw in PC bulb, except its 6500k as oppose to 3000-4000k for lighting up your house.

http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/PowerCompact.html

I'm still skeptical of the whole thing. The claim is, it's for "planted and reef tanks", but the pro's I've asked don't have anything nice to say about them. All it's going to be is, "the start of more lighting problems for people new to the hobby."

It's left up to you if you want to experiment with them or not, but I suggest looking into other forms of lighting.

My Answer
Thankfully this lady read more of the site and found the Aquarium Information article about Aquarium Lighting: Aquarium Lighting; How it works, about.

But these sad questions in my mind remain;

*Why did he not look past a simple search and read this article (the lady at least did)?
The answers is simple, he is sticking to his narrow view and is not willing to look outside the box to anything that may move him past these views that are BADLY outdated!!

*What Pros is he talking to? I doubt he has talked to ANY Pros as they obviously have not done ANY research past the anecdotal Aquarium hobby or he could not have made such an absurd statement. As well, has he talked to anyone outside the aquarium hobby/industry?
There is much more money spent in research in other industries, such as the rapidly growing Green House industry where demand for the SHO light is creating a supply problem.
The real Pros know that the SHO and LED lights are at the very least the immediate future of aquarium lighting when cost, lighting parameters, environmental concerns and more are added to the equation.

*His answer that all it is a screw in PC bulb; so is not a VHO a high output PC bulb, come on guy, are you that ignorant! This is plain common sense! Whether the SHO bulb meets all its claims certainly can be debated (although one greenhouse nursery purchasing 1000 per month from the distributor of the SHO light speaks volumes!), but this logic is so flawed it is pitiful.

The picture above was sent by a client (immediately after receiving them, before practical use) showing the difference with an SHO lamps vs. FOUR 36 inch T8 aquarium bulbs!! The SHO in the middle over powers out the 4 other lamps when turned on in the top view.

What also gets me is how common this is (not just in Yahoo Answers) but in many internet forums or articles where someone will make statements with no knowledge or research of the process or product they are talking about (aquarium chemistry, filtration, and medications are full of incorrect anecdotal statements).

SHO lamps/lights are a good example of how the aquarium industry is often behind the tech/research curve as SHO lights are now widely used by Greenhouses, but our sadly slow to catch on in the aquarium hobby/industry.
Quite bluntly, the future of aquarium lighting is in SHO and LED lights due to the practical applications of both, energy saving, and even cost (LEDs are coming down rapidly in cost while the light itself is improving dramatically). Sadly the only thing standing in the way of these two lights is the aquarium industry itself (a popular site has a lighting article that is woefully out of date as to LED and does not even mention SHO, this site is also sadly on the first page of Google as well).

This answer is also one more example of why Yahoo Answers should be avoided like the plague for aquarium information (or likely other subjects that objective answers are sought) as you get persons that think they know something that actually know nothing of what they are talking about!!

For anyone reading this article/post, PLEASE use a forum such as Everything Aquatic for your questions and leave YA to the scrap heap of bad ideas!

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