Johnny fishhead Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 Hello everyone, I have had an aquarium of some sorts for most of my life. After taking off a few years I've decided to start up a new tank. I have a 29 gallon that I have built a refugium inside of leaving 24 of the 30 inches left of the main tank. Of course my question is about lighting. I have 24 inches across to work with and I can't talk the wife into letting me spend the money on metal halide yet. So I figure if I get it going with pc or fluorescent lighting maybe she'll fall in love with it and let my buy metal halide. Anyway my question is should I go with vho or pc lighting. I figured I would start with around 150 watts. What do you think? Link to comment
newbyreef Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 I'd personally go with VHO...cheaper to replace those bulbs than PC. Plus URI VHO lamps have built in reflectors in the lamps, so you don't really need a seperate reflector to direct the light into the tank. HTH Dan Link to comment
Reefer_Buddha Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 depends on the halide setup you want. You COULD go with vho but maybe just go with pc's so you have more cash for halides when you decide to get it. If you know youll always have fluorescents then stay with vho, otherwise dont spend wads on vho when you know youll get halide soon. Link to comment
wetworx101 Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 I was always under the impression that the lumens per watt of PC was much higher than VHO. Oh well, I dont mess with PC even anymore unless I need a little actinic...everything is halide now. You know, halide isnt that much more. Icecap 250 watt ballasts are about $115, less than the 150 and 175 watt ballasts often times. Now, your hood options vary, and I prefer the $100 PFO pendants, but you could DIY a nice hood to mount your light in (and impress the woman with your craftsmanship) and get by with just a reflector and socket assembly for under $30. Add in your light, like a 13,000-20,000K bulb, for about $80, and call it a day. For a decent quality PC setup you could almost spend this much anyways. And then you can do anything...YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT. YOU KNOW IM RIGHT. Just get the halide, it isnt that much. And besides, if you really want to impress her, halide does the job many times better (corals are brighter and look better, and everything lives/grows better). ...IMO... Link to comment
Reefer_Buddha Posted February 13, 2004 Share Posted February 13, 2004 indeed, the shimmer is the shizzle Link to comment
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