Differerance in lighting

[pistonfister]

I am still fairly new to the whole reef thing. I know what the physical differance is between lights but is there a differance between a 40 watt mh vs a 40 watt pc vs a 40 watt vho? When they measure a light with a k reading ( like the light pc light on my tank 55w 10000k) is that the best way to determine the output of a light? Is the only advantage to mh the fact that they are brighter or do they offer a better light spectrem for growth? And sorry one more question are vho lights better then pc lights? Thanks and sorry for all the questions.

[Satchmo]

The "K" refers to the bulb's color-temperature, measured in Kelvins. It's a measure of the spectrum of light the bulb is emitting and has nothing to do with brightness or intensity. Example: 5000K looks yellow, where 20000K looks blue.

 

The wattage of a bulb is a measure of how much electricity the bulb eats up. When comparing between different forms of lighting, you can't use this to determine intensity. 40w of MH (if there were such a thing) would be MUCH brighter than 40w of PC, which would be brighter than 40W of NO. Lumens are what would determine a bulbs' intensity.

 

As for which is better, PCs or VHOs, that's a bit of a debate. Personally, I think the people who state that PCs are inferior are the ones who've spent lots of money setting up VHO systems.

[pistonfister]

Thanks for the info. So you its not black and white as far as which is better the pc's or the vho's. It sounds like you perfer the pc lights. Do you like them better even on larger tank like a 120gallon ? It seems like everone perfers the mh lights. So with the kelvins of a light is that were the corals get there nutrients? Or part of there nutruinets. I would asume it is a combiniton of light intensity and spectrum. Thanks for your time. The better I understand this the better I will be at keeping things alive:happy:

[tinyreef]

"Personally, I think the people who state that PCs are inferior are the ones who've spent lots of money setting up VHO systems."

 

X)

 

actually, there's +/- for either system imo. personally, i just happen to like vho more for it's color rendition and actinic quality. i've spent more (much more X) ) on pc's and mh's than vho. on another note, if you can afford mh's then go for it imo.

 

physh wrote a great article (link) to lighting questions and concepts. a search should turn it up.