Lighting question

[StirCrazy]

OK OK, I am going to have to go through this again ...

Watts/gal means absolutely nothing unless you are talking about the exact same type of lighting on the exact same dimension tank.

the reason being that if I have two 100 watt MH bulbs on a tank that is say 90 gal and a dimension of 3 foot long x 2 foot wide x 2 foot tall and I compare that to a 90 gal that is 5 foot long x 30 inches wide and 12" tall with the identical lighting they are both 2.2 watt / gal. BUT the second tank is going to bleach a coral on the bottom where the first tank will barely have enuf light to get color.

If you are going to use comparisons like this then please use watts/square foot, which at least will be a good comparison for comparing tanks with the same lighting type. I personally use a PAR meter to compare my lights but not everybody can afford one but it is really the only real way to compare lighting systems at a specific point.

and on the same subject, if you have 192 watts of PC lighting this is not the same as having 192 watts of VHO or 192 watts of NO lighting and believe it or not is less light than having 175 watts of MH lighting.

the reason for this is intensity, NO are very low and the power of the light drops off faster and doesn't penetrate as deep while retaining power. VHO and PC are close but PC is about 10% more intense than VHO and the 175 watt MH is about 2 to 3X more intense.

So remember to really suggest lighting we need to know the depth of the tank, the types of lighting you are looking at and the intention of the tank.

Steve