If total wattage is equal to metal halide is it ok for hard coral?

Even good MH bulbs are 6-10 months. I run mine 11 hours a day with no actinics. If you run them 6 hours then you can get a year out of them. The higher the kelvin the less life of the bulb.

 

I guess some people are more concerned about output than others... I am sure you can run MH lamps a long time but the output will steadily drop after 8 months or so, esp if like Adam you run them fairly long.

 

True, all depends on the type of corals you have. I know from my esp. the corals will let you know when its time to change. You will start to see a difference in the corals.


Luna

 

Sorry to thread jack here, but if you had the choice between Power Compacts and T5's, which would you go with?

Reason being is I'm in the middle of upgrading my lighting, and I ruled on metal halide because of heat issues (i live in a pretty hot area).

I was thinking about getting a 2x96w Power compact with actinic and 10000k.

Any suggestions on t5 setups?

Should I stick with PCs?


EDIT: Nevermind, I found the thread!
http://www.3reef.com/forums/reef-lighting/t5-vs-pc-35101.html

 

PC's are old school they put out the lowest par,and they run HOT.I'm with Dr.Frankenstein T5's all the way!! The arguement will never end with halide users and T5's.

 

PCs, CAN put out decent PAR but they are energy hogs and have no decent reflectors... No matter what much of the light from one lamp will light the other lamp, whereas T5 has the reflector wrapped all around it... PCs also degrade faster, and come in less color options. It would take more PC lamps than you could fit over a tank to compete with either T5 or MH...