lighting

[brock]

this may sound un-intelegent but lets say you have a 55gallon tank, so 48" long, and you have a 48" VHO 110 watt florescent bulb on it, is haveing 2x55watt pc lights the same thing?
I mean they both obviously are using 110watts, but is one actually better/mor powerfull

 

[brock]

is there a reason people dont reply to questions in general, are the questions too dumb, are people to busy, most people dont know the answer, or they jsut like to read and gather knowledge. Just wandering what peoples thought were?

 

[wrassecal]

Sometimes it just takes a while for the right people to see the thread and answer it. ( not that I'm the right people)pc and vho put out different light to different depths. Yes it would both be 110 watts but, that's only 2 watts per gallon on a 55. Not enough if you want to do any corals. A lot of people like the flouresence of the vho's better. There is a lot of info here on lighting. Just do a search using "vho" or "pc" or "mh" and you will get a ton of information to help you start narrowing down what you think you would like.

 

[jedininja]

A lot of people read the posts but many people reading dont know the answers, and many are not registered users so they can not reply. The person I think would be best able to answer you is Kip. I think he has the most experience with PC and VHO. I have never used VHO (am running PC and HQI MH) but from what I remember reading, VHO has a better blue color whereas PC light is more intense and penetrates deeper. I may be wrong though. The other things is if you use PC, make sure you are getting true actinic bulbs and not blue bulbs.
Hope I helped.