T5's or PCF's??

so MH are the way to go???

 

eh, MH and t5 have their pros and cons.

If you do BOTH, you have almost no cons, and all pros, except maybe a little higher electric bill.

 

I have to respectfully disagree with you on this one. If a MH bulb wasn't in a reflector it would be going in every direction. You need the reflector to focus the light from the bulb both across the tank and front to back. With T5s the reflector just focuses the bulb front to back since the bulbs are running the length of the tank anyway.

 

I kinda agree with horkn but im a all MH guy and vho for the blues i just love the way vhos look

 

You mean pinks/ purples? What VHO bulbs do you use? UV super actinics? There are not many choices for VHO left, and even when they were in their hay day, not many options for "colors" were out there.

At some point in the near future, you will have to re think your vho choice, as the bulbs are on their way out of the market. VHO bulbs have to use phosphors that are bad for the environment. It may be possible that no new VHO bulbs have been produced for some time and the ones left were made when they could.

 

im not worried i have about 25 new vho bulbs i bought a while back from a local business who had a bucn in stock, i love the super atinic i just like the look of them

 

I just went from VHO's and PC's to T5's and all I can say is wow!! The amount of light these things throw is really amazing. My fiancee even commented that difference is like watching a tube TV with rabbit ears (before) compared to a 60" plasma in HD (after). Before I was at just over 700 watts over my 125, and now with the T5's i'm at 480, but the tank looks waaaaay brighter.

~Will.

 

Very true all bulbs need a reflector to be efficient.

 

If you have a plan to reduce heat and dont mind the electric bill IMO MH are the best.

 

Point source can be a good or bad thing... Those ripple lines you see in MH tanks is the light being refracted under water... MEANING you can have an area in the tank that is reading 450 uMol/m2/sec but one inch over it is 250uMol/m2/sec. The lighting is not consistent like you would see in T5....

PC does not spread the light out anymore than T5 does, T5 is just more efficient at getting the light INTO the TANK... i.e BETTER REFLECTORS.