Florecent VS PC

entice59

entice59

Active Member
well it obvious that PC is WAYYYYYYYY better, but my friend has an eclipse 2 hood(yeah i know options are VERY limited), but theres an upgrade kit for the light by sealife custom, but its only 34 watts PC, BUT here the thing the standard florcents are 35 watts ...
Question is- Is there a difference? if so can you give the technical reasons why, like the spectrum is different blah blah blah
 
luckyzeee

luckyzeee

Member
you can also try to retrofit the Eclipse 3 kit from CSL. The Eclipse 3 kit is 23". If you measure the inside of the eclipse hoo, you will notice that it is 22.75". I have an eclipse 2 and I think I am going to put 2 65 watt retrofits kits in. I will have to cut a little bit, but that's ok. Just an option for you....
 
justinx

justinx

Active Member
I think that i might have to disagree with you that PC are better. The reasons being that, for one thing, as far as i know, there is yet to be a true actinic PC which results in less flourescence of corals and such. second, PC bulbs dont have the same life span of VHO from what i have been told. And third, PC bulbs break easily at the base and are expensive. However, PC do have a significant advantage over VHO when it comes to small spaces. I would say that if you can stick with florescents, do it. The actinic is a true actinc, and the bulbs are going to be way cheaper if they are just NO.
 
benj420

benj420

Member
I agree with JustinX. I like the appearance of VHO's much better than PC's. VHO's spread the light better and have better blues IMO.
 
entice59

entice59

Active Member
just to make sure, the "florcents" bulbs are the cheap tube light bulbs, that are very common in fresh water set ups. right?
also, thanks for your imputs
 
benj420

benj420

Member
Yes and No. Freshwater tube lights are flourescnet bulbs, but we are talking about VHO Flourescent bulbs which are much brighter. For example, a 4 foot Normal Output (NO) bulb is 40 watts. A 4 foot VHO bulb is the same size, but 110 watts. All of this probably doesn't matter because I don't know if there is a VHO retrofit kit for your hood.
Anyway, back to your original question. 34 watts of PC is much brighter than 35 watts of Normal Output Flourescent.
If you only want fish in the tank (with or without Live Rock), save your money. If you want to grow any corals, switch to PC.
 
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