differences in lighting

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hackteck

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Feb 24, 2005
Messages
2,639
i have a metal halide 560 watt fixture, but yesterday i was looking at a site with a power compact 540 watt fixture whats the difference between a 540 watt pc and 540 watt metal halide, because some lets say clams require intence lighting would 540 watts of pc lighting be considered intence? i was just curious because this 540 watt pc was way less then what i payed for my metal halide
 
Please give people more time to answer until you "bump" your own topic. If you do not get a response after a day or so, go ahead and bump it.

To answer your question...think of it in terms of light penetration. MH lighting is more "intense" or focused then CF. This will cause the light to penetrate deeper into the aquarium. As a result, you will have more useful light make it to the bottom of the tank. In the example of clams that you gave, the answer is a bit tricky. There are clams that require MH for best results. T. corcea clams for instance. There are also clams that do not require as much light, such as T. derasa or T. squamosa. Here is the catch...the latter two are substrate dwellers, they still need lighting that will penetrate all the way to the bottom of the tank. So while they require less light, MH is still preferred. It really just depends on what you want to keep. You made the right choice going with MH, it will allow you to keep a wider variety of animals.
 
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