Lighting a big tank

[slipknottin]

Originally posted by Robert H

Slip... PCs are a lot cheaper than any you mentioned...

$25 for a 55 watt, $35 for a 96.

VHOS, when I had a VHO system a few years ago, 48" bulbs were around $35 a peice. An Ice cap 440 ballast as I remember was over $200. Then you need end caps, wiring harness...

You need wiring harness and end caps and a ballast no matter what you get.

110 watt VHO- $25

Metal Halides.... run anywhere from $70 to well over $100 just for the bulb. Then you need to buy the ballast, and the fixture.

And if you price all the lighting options out per watt, MH beats them all. I setup 2x400 watt MH for just about $300. 800 watts of lighting in CF would be ~$700, in VHO it would be $600, and T5 would be $800.

T5 fixtures are ridiculously expensive in the USA, and I have not seen anything to justify the price

A 4 lamp retrofit (including bulbs) is $200... About the same as a 2x96 watt PC kit, and puts out quite a bit more light.