Quote:
Originally Posted by fkshiu
Well let's break things down on a strictly technical basis:
MH BALLASTS
You should be able to get more light out of a 400W electronic ballast vs. a 250W magnetic. It will make a difference if you want to put high light corals and clams on the bottom of your 24" tank (see BULBS below for further discussion on PAR).
Secondly, electronic ballasts will be more reliable in the long term than magnetics and you'll have certainty and consistency of electrical usage with an electronic ballast - it will run 400w regardless whereas 250w magnetics can actually draw up to 300w when in use. On a related note, electronics are also more consistent with respect to output according to Sanjay Joshi's results. There is more of a PAR variation in between different brands of magnetic ballasts so you may end up with either an underperformer or an overperformer. Electronics will also run cooler, are physically smaller and quite a bit lighter in weight than magnetics.
BULBS
Not sure how old the XM and URI bulbs that come with the PFO are, but if they have any life in them left they will be superior to what the other fixture has. Regardless of how happy people are with the actual "cheap Chinese" fixture they buy on e-Bay, there is almost universal dissatisfaction with the no-name bulbs that come with these fixtures. Some reports indicate that the "actinics" in some of these fixtures are just regular bulbs painted blue. You know exactly what you are getting with XMs and URIs Superactinics.
Further, since the PFO is SE and the generic unit is DE, you'll get more PAR out of the SE bulbs simply because the DE unit will require an extra glass UV shield which filters out PAR as well as UV. SE bulbs can be run bare and thus lose less PAR on the way down to the tank.
REFLECTORS
You should find out what type of reflectors the PFO has. They can range anywhere from aluminium to mirror-polished to hammertone. PFO also uses different types of reflectors from the crappy flat type to the better "parallel" style. The reflectors on the Chinese unit are puny and will not give the best spread or most even spread. Reflectors are extremely important in performance. Regardless, neither unit will have very good reflectors in the grand scheme of things - that would go to dedicated MH pendants like Lumenarc or Lumenbright.
Fluorescent BALLASTS
The Icecap 660 is a very versatile and reliable ballast. It can run T5s if you wanted and in fact will overdrive T5HOs producing more light at the cost of shorter bulb life.
OTHER
The PFO is butt ugly unless you like the Mad Max look. Moonlights are neat to have, but can be retrofitted on the PFO. The PFO also may have fans which can be important in the life of T5 bulbs - they tend to give more light and last longer when actively cooled.
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I had a feeling you might get in on the technical side of this.
Thank you very much for an important set of factors in this decision.
There is a picture of the reflectors on the pfo unit in the picture I attached a couple posts up...
I believe they are the parallel kind?
The xm bulbs have 2 months use and the URI's are brand new.
would I really need to be concerned about enough light for high light corals with either one of these fixtures on a 24' depth?
My 2x150w HQI is giving me good color and I have sps from halfway on up...