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Re: NOs vs high intensity
> In order to have any success whatsoever (IMO),
> you will have to ditch regular flourescents and go either compact
flourescents
> (AH Supply has good selection and Kim is very nice) or metal halide.
Hey Daphne, that's a pretty far reaching blanket statement there! There are
lots of recognized plant people on this list who would beg to differ.<<<
Robert Paul H wrote:
Well, IMHO, Power Compacts, Metal Halides, and VHO are certainly the easiest
way to reach a desired light level, and depending on the size of the tank
and whats available to you, it may be the only way. My 55 gallon tank is lit
by four 40 watt NO flourescents with two shop lights. I wouldnt call the
light level bright by any means, and thats literally all that will fit.
I reply:
You are right that PCs and MHs are the best way to get light in a small
space but they are not the cheapest to purchase or operate. Your shoplight
system is not a very fair comparison though as most of these kind of suck in
efficiency and light output. Depending on the ballast you can probably get
considerably more light out of your shoplights by changing to T8 lamps with
HLO electronic ballasts. In some cases (but not usually) you can almost
double the light output. You can also invest in or make better reflectors
for your shoplights which will direct more light into your tank. It still
won't match the compactness of PCs and MHs but it is still a good deal. As
for VHOs I don't know why anyone uses them anymore. They are expensive,
inefficient, shortlived and have poor lumen maintainance requiring frequent
lamp changes.
Wayne