MH vs PC wattage comparison

Toss the PC's out the window... GO eather T5's of MH... IMO...


BEst of Luck...

 

MH all the way kid!

but with a 70g which i believe is at least 48" wide, you'll want a two bulb set up... so something like 2x150w

2x250w even better... but it's up to you...

the metal halide has all the light coming from a bulb the size of your thumbnail, so you wont' get full coverage from just one bulb... 2 should do just fine however.

and once you get it and put that first little fluorescent green/blue coral frag in there you'll know why you paid the extra money!

 

this whole T5's run cooler and MH's run so hot is a myth, any similarly rated bulb produces the SAME amount of heat...

a 150w MH produces the same amount of heat as 150w of t5's PC's actually maybe slightly less if you exclude the heat from the ballast... MH just concentrates the heat in one spot, and the fixture is typically VERY hot... but t5's also have larger bulkier fixtures which sit closer to the water, trapping more heat in the tank... i switched from ~75w PC lighting to 70w metal halide and my tank temps went down 2 deg, the light was a jbj viper and i had it about 4" off the surface of the tank... the smaller fixture kept the heat from being trapped and radiated back into the tank.

mh clamp on and hanging pendants are the way to go.