capt crabtabulous
Member
Can someone explain the difference between Power Compact lights and VHO?
Power Compacts
- Thread starter capt crabtabulous
- Start date
mlm
Active Member
VHO look like regular flouresent bulbs like the ones in your house but they are a lot higher wattage. Ex standard 48inch flourescent in 40 watts Vho flourescent is 110 watts. Power compact is a whole other thing. They put a lot of power in to a little light for example a 22 inch PC light can be 55 watts. They are grear for small tanks but the bulbs are a little pricey.
josh
Active Member
Hi,
VHO
1. have fuller spectrum of light
2. bulbs have short life, I bellieve only
6 months to a year.
3. get hot
4. are fairly expensive to run
PC
1. initial setup cost is significantly
more
2. bulbs produce much more intense
light ( in terms of lumens )- but not as diverse of spectrum
3. Bulbs have very long life, upto 16
months in some cases
4 heat due to lights is not much of an
issue
5. when using electronic ballast, cost
to run is nominal comparitively
having said that, I use pc lights but most use VHO... you can even do both! The decision is still yours, what size tank do you have?
HTH
Josh
VHO
1. have fuller spectrum of light
2. bulbs have short life, I bellieve only
6 months to a year.
3. get hot
4. are fairly expensive to run
PC
1. initial setup cost is significantly
more
2. bulbs produce much more intense
light ( in terms of lumens )- but not as diverse of spectrum
3. Bulbs have very long life, upto 16
months in some cases
4 heat due to lights is not much of an
issue
5. when using electronic ballast, cost
to run is nominal comparitively
having said that, I use pc lights but most use VHO... you can even do both! The decision is still yours, what size tank do you have?
HTH
Josh