PC's

[robbyville]

Hi Marty,

Definitely not a "phase" in regards to MH lighting. They are easily one of the best investments for the present and future.

to answer your question:

I ran PC's for my first year in the hobby. I felt that they were well worth the money for both their simplicity and ease of use. Of course they are limiting in terms of livestock able to be kept in the tank (But you already knew that!).

I especially liked that PC's enabled me to keep some variety of easy to keep corals while perpetuating my understanding, research, and knowledge of the hobby. At the same time it allowed me the time to realise that I eventually wanted to upgrade to MH (and save the cash to do it). This cost me a little more in the long run but not much since I kept my pc's as supplemental lighting and to simulate dusk/dawn effect prior to the MH's off and on cycle. Many people say to simply bite the bullet and go for the MH's I agree in some ways (cost), and disagree in others (as above).

You can run MH's without supplemental actinic lighting easily, but it's a personal taste of what kind of coloration in your lighting that you are looking for. There are many people who run Venture and Ushio 10k bulbs with no PC's or VHO's so you could easily buy into a MH system without supplemental work. Apparently Venki's bulbs also have great coloration.

Lastly, if you do decide to go with MH I strongly suggest that you go to 250w bulbs and ballasts. the additional costs are minimal, and it ads very much to diversity of corals to be kept. Not to mention the upgrade factor, if you ever go to a larger tank (and who doesn't want to do that)!

HTH

Rob