Power Compact or Metal Halide?

[tang_man_montreal]

I wouldn't worry too much about it as long as you plan ahead and properly. Fires due to aquarium equipment are quite isolated and rare.

Those pictures are quite the wake up call though...

[Nighty]

That they are ... that they are.

My tank is a 72 gallon Oceanic bowfront ... about 48 inches across and 23 inches deep. I suspect that may be a little too deep for PC lighting and SPSes, right?

[venkiw]

I have the same Oceanic which is currently a fresh water tank. It will also become a salt water tank. 2 250 MH is what i'll go with for that tank, with vho actinic supplement.

[tang_man_montreal]

Nighty, with that setup, you could have softies and some LPS provided that they're located higher up in the tank...

[Nighty]

Hmm. Well, thank you for your input. You've given me a lot to mull about.

One last question to lengthen out this thread ... species limitation and extreme heat aside, is there any difference between a PC lighting system and an MH lighting system when it comes to one's hydro bill?

Nighty

[venkiw]

tang_man I hope this photo was not used as a smear campaign against ICECAP, looks like everything got burnt except the ballast.
I hope ICECAP folks don't get to see this!!!

But you sure have me scared now.

The power consumption is based on the wattage of the light chosen.

110 (2 55 Watt) watts if used for 10 hours a day will consume approximately 1.1 KiloWattt-hour per day.

250 Watts if used for 10 hours a day will consume approximately 2.5 KiloWattt-hour per day.

Having said that I have to add that the Fluorescents produce roughly 60-80 lumens per watt as against 40 - 55 lumens per watt from a metal halide (the lumens per watt decreases with the increase in correlated color temperature or CCT measured in Kelvin). As you can see the fluorescents are much more efficient in converting electricity into light.

The 2 things that keep MH still popular are the facts that the higher wattage fluorescents are still not readily available and the shimmering effect of metal halides.

[tang_man_montreal]

Having no experience with PC lighting, I can't comment. However, there is a noticable increase in one's hydro bill when using MH's.

[ALRHA]

i have PCs (see my footer) on my 72gal Bow tank with softies in it who are as happy as can be. my LFS showed me his personal tanks (750gal being his biggest) in which he only uses PCs and has hard corals doing very nicely in them as well.

[Nighty]

Hmm. Interesting. Thank you all for your input! You've given me a lot to think about. Alrha, your tank sounds pretty similar to mine ... what wattage should I be looking for in a PC lighting system? Does the 5-7 watt to gallon rule apply to PCs?

And a few more questions just to round this thread off ...

How do anemones fare under PC lighting? I'm thinking particularly of those partial to clownfish (in a nonlethal way).

What causes that shimmering MH effect anyway?

Nighty

[ReefVan]

It's called single point of light... that's what causes the shimmering effect vs a vho or PC which diffuses the light over a greater area.

A little like the sun... :

Van