Lighting my 29" deep 150G

Covey,
Am I right you are going to use the Luminarc 3 reflector and Mougle bulbs? I know several folks running PFO hqi with the L3 and Radium 20K SE. Nice blue look and good par. I'm sure you could go 250 watt even at 29" depth. I am running XM 10k 250's on ice cap electronic and 440 vho actinic. I think the pfo hqi will be the next upgrade for me.
Scott

 

I think this will end up being a full flushing out of what the T-5 system can do. My existing light on my 75 is 4' long. The new tank is 6' long. Honestily if I were considering a 250W MH based system I would just run T-5 as a good T-5 rig will outpace them but as it turns out I have not found a good way to run T-5s on a 6' tank(the pms with Creep). As it is I am looking for a MH only system. Like I said this will be the last major thing I set up. I hope to compare the MH to the T-5s on the same tank. Then decide from there but I want the most out of the MH I get. I was thinking the 400W jobs after Mike Paletta came and talked to my local club on SPS coloration. From that I am pretty sure I am going for the 400W over 250W because I want to run something like a 14000K and the PAR falls over sharply when you get into the higher Kelvin rating.

 

Covey Check out http://www.personal.psu.edu/sbj4/aquarium/articles/ballast%20comparison/ballast-comparison.html

The biggest thing that drew me to E-Ballasts is the cost of running them up to 40% less energy is used to power the lamp while maintaining the same or better output. The ballasts run much cooler as well

Do you know what PPFD represents?

J

 

I think... its analogues to PAR. Past that I don't know how they equate to each other though. When compared in the few test where there head to head the Blueline and the PFO seem to be back and forth depending on which bulb they use.

Side note the article did bring up the dual PFO. PFO does offer the dual in HQI too.
If I end up buying three E-Ballast
3x180=$540

If I ending up getting three PFO HQI I could get 1 single and 1 double ballast
275+160=$430

I still got a couple months to work this out.