correct gimplar you need the right amount for sure. with the right reflectors you can do alot with a little bit of power consumption. like my tank for instance. on 265 gallons 31 inches deep most people would agree to have sps you need at least 3 400watt metal halides. with the advances in lighting and protein skimmers and carbon and any number of other things to make your water clearer it has become at least to me aparent that we don't need near as much light as we used to. so without actinics on my tank people ran 1200 watts then a minimum of 320 watts of actinics. so over 1500 watts. thats basically what you are paying progress energy . they rate it kilowatts per hour and then gouge you for it. when doing this tank I knew I couldn't pay for that much electricity so I went t5's. at first I did 432 watts total. that included 216watts of actinic bulbs. 108 watts of 11k daylight is all I had plus 108 watts of blue that peaks around 450 nm. so intense powerful light is only 108 watts on my pretty large tank and deep to add to the t5 wow. I have since added 2 11k and 2 blue bulbs all 39 watts each to try something new. I have not seen a bit of coral improvement. so when these bulbs are used up I will be removing them to see what happens. anyway when used with the correct program rapid start ballasts the bulbs run cooler and start properly therefore lasting at least a little bit longer. I can say the bulbs run approximately 40-50 degree's cooler than on ice cap 660 ballasts. I used an infrared thermometer to check them. I have not ever used pc's so I really can't compare the 2 but I have seen acro's under them doing very well and even vho's.
check out garf.org I think they use all vho if I remember correctly. or have a really nice 55 that has all vho?
check out garf.org I think they use all vho if I remember correctly. or have a really nice 55 that has all vho?
