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Old 05-26-2006, 08:43 PM
midgetwaiter midgetwaiter is offline
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Well no offense Scott but have you ever tried keeping a clam under anything but MH? It can be done and done well if some prior conditions like water quality and calcium availability are met. Unfortunately most people that try to keep a clam under PC are people that are newer to the hobby (haven't heard the MH ranting over and over again) and probably are not doing a very good of keeping the rest of their house in order.

You can keep a crocea or blue maxima with that setup you just need to maintain the intensity, like asmodeus said. I'm not directly familiar with the ballast used in that fixture so I can't give a really solid opinion but I'd bet you would have to change your bulbs about every 4-5 months to maintain the output. If that is a really good electronic ballast, and it probably is, that period would be longer but you can't get a good idea of how long without a PAR meter. As the bulbs age their output diminishes an tends to shift spectrum a bit. The phosphors that do actinic blue wear out especially quickly.

So you could do it, but it would pretty much be stupid expensive to replace the bulbs all the time. If you haven't used the thing yet maybe try returning it and getting a T5 fixture or something.
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