MH 14k vs PC

[cital]

OK, so I have a new set up but I cant decide what lights to go with. I have a 60gal 48x15x17 aquarium and I am thinking about going with 2 175w Hamilton 14k MH set up with electronic ballasts. I am going 14k because I do not want to have to run actinics. Now I want to know how much better the MH lights will be than if I was to go with PC (4x65w 2x10k/2xactinic), keeping in mind the MH bulbs are 14k. Any info would be really appreciated, I just dont want to pay over twice as much for lights if they aren't even that much better, thanks for any help.

 

[Blown 346]

Metal halides in my opinion are the best out there for lighting. They will be better than PC's for spectrum and strength by far.
But they do generate more heat and electric than PC's.
The halides give you the opton of doing whatever you want right off the bat with the right setup. PC's will be cheaper than halides and have to be replaced about twice a year as halides are about once a year.

 

[cital]

Thanks for the reply, I knew MH's in general were much stronger than PC's I just want to make sure a 14k MH bulb will still be much stronger than PC's, sounds like they would be.

 

[mcox33]

I am running

2 400watt MH 14K Hamilton SE
4 65watt Odyessea PC 2 are 12K 2 are true actinic
1 28watt Current T-5 460nm
4 led's the led's have a random flash pattern and stay on 24/7

all the lights except led's are on timers.

the 28 watt comes on at 7am and off at 11am back on at 10pm and off at 1am

the pc's come on at 8am and go off at noon back on at 6pm and off at 11pm

MH come on at 11am and 11:15 am amd go off at 7pm and 7:15pm

I can tell the difference in the tank light when the pc's go off.

my opinion use both.

 

[Therbligs]

MH's by nature are better than PC's.

IMHO PC setup producing the same PAR value as a MH will generate more heat, because more wattage is required for PC's to produce the same PAR. PC's produce much more diffuse light in comparison to MH's.

The heating affect is more localized with MH's and the reason why people feel MH's produce more heat. A real life example of this is the use of a magnifying glass and the sun. The same light/energy is present, but the magnifying glass concentrates the diffuse light from the sun into an intense light source, which also concentrates the energy (PAR).

I would still run Actinics, but to answer you question, it depends on the spectral plot of the bulb, ballast, shield, etc to give a definitive answer. Look at Sanjay's data on the combo you are looking at.