DE vs SE setups.

[marcingo]

I prefer double ended. To me they just appear to be much brighter. They also use electronic ballasts I believe which are quieter. I also believe double ended are less power consuming then single ended. Some also say that double ended bulbs last longer.

Also I have noticed that my bulbs (DE) do not heat up my water at all- they are 5 inches above the water while I know the SE do give off lots of heat. I am not sure though if higher wattage DE give off much more heat than mine my are only 150watt.

This are just conclusions that I came from from all the reading I have done and from what others have told me. Also About the brightness I have come to that conclusion from seeing stronger single ended bulbs in a tank and double ended.

As you can probably imagine- my lights at home are double ended bulbs.

But as Chin Lee says it is a topic that you have to research yourself and ultimately choose whichever type you like better there is tons of people using both DE and SE.