Ok let's talk about fluorescents until my research is done and LED's come to the top of my purchase list. What is the trade of between commodity lighting and more sophisticated versions? I already have a good electronic ballast that is ready to go but it looks like buying more of the cheaper bulbs might be a good idea if you are doing it every 3 months. The cost difference isn't huge but it is a factor and convenience is also something that I am considering.
Not reading the text and just looking at the pictures, I see that some people are doing well with 4 CFL's. They are probably using high wattage versions. Some are probably doing just fine using average wattages.
I feed several cubes of food per day and dose phyto paste ...and add powders. So there aren't too many people that have been down this path and most of them use skimmers. I am hoping to do what most people would consider over scrubbing. I used to have 4 old style VHO's on one side and it worked great. I tried that coral rubble refugium, without the scrubber but now I am disconnecting it and going back the scrubber.
With the VHO's, I could feed ANYTHING! I even had to add fish emulsion fertilizer when I wasn't feeding enough because of the over scrubbing. Sounds crazy right? Given enough light, that algae did what every I ask it to do. Now I want to fire up the scrubber again and when I look at the frequent purchasing of bulbs, I want to go down the right path.
Again, I am weighing fancy lighting that I buy at the reef store at full price or on line, paying shipping. I guess that would give me the best system outside of LED's. The other choice would be to buy a lot more CFL's as they go on sale in the Lowes or Ace stores that I go into a few times each weekend.
Using a good reflector, do I go with 4 VHO's, 4 T5's, 4 to 6 55-68W CFLs or 10 or 12 23W CFLS ...?
What are your thoughts?