Which is the better way to go with lights

[goalie66]

I have a 200 that I want to upgrade my lights on.
Right now it's just NO lights. I can only afford to do it slowly.
What my 2 choices are is this:
1) two 160 VHO lights plus ballast (about $250.00)
or
2) two 96watt PCs (about $230.00)
I will add two more lights later as I get the money so I will have
a total of 4 of either kind.
I also see that the
VHOs would be 320 watts compaired to 192 watts for the PCs
I mainly have fish in this tank with live rock but would like to
see more growth and maybe add some low light corals.
Thanks to all that reply with thier .02
Tom

 

[richard rendos]

do you have a canopy or are you looking at some kind of hood? if you have a canopy, there are cheaper vho retro kits out there that would give you more light. check out hello lights web site. their vho retro kits are way cheaper than that.

 

[goalie66]

I am building my own hood, i have looked there already they are
$180.00 for just the 2 bulb 160watt kit with out the bulbs.
I'm just wondering if the 96watt PCs are close to being equal to
the 160watt VHOs, I realize that the numbers are quite different
but I heard that the PCs have more LUX than the VHOs. Another
place I looked says that a 110 watt PC has twice the LUX that a 110 watt VHO has.

 

[rubberburnerme]

watts dont mean that much lux is the key pc.s are better if ur doing corls look at a 140 vho than look at a 96 pc the pc will hurt ur eyes

 

[goalie66]

So I guess you would choose the PCs?

 

[richard rendos]

for $180, you are looking a a complete retro with the reflector...get the one without the reflector for like $135. Get URI bulbs...they have built in reflectors. the pc/vho debate rages on...i prefer vho to pc, but others swear by pc's

 

[chef jaysen]

Vho are alot cooler too. Talked to a reef store owner down here in miami and he swears by vho. After seeing his tanks he sold me on them.

 

[stranglehold]

I thought that I read somewhere that the PC's were cooler. Is it the bulbs themselves, or is the heat in the ballast?
I am gathering equipment for my 55 reef and was leaning towards pc's.
Had thoughts of puting a 175W MH on one end - for variable conditions.
Would rather stay away from the MH because of the added space required above the tank, but some say it is neccesary for the harder corals.
Looking at 6 - 8 watts/gallon average. Would probably be a little higher on one end.
Any thoughts on this?