Hi Ari,
I have to concur with Ruslan. The quality of today's for home use fl/pl bulbs are suitable. I tried some Phillips and Osram tubes and they work well. Good but not great at the fraction of the cost. The only problem is we can only get it in standard 2ft or 4ft for fl here. I can safely say that special or shop bulbs the difference is minor once you exceed the threshold of what a plant needs.
MH is not for the beginner. least of all typical MH for reef tanks which pack more than 300W with not so useful actinic lights. More lights means everything is sped up and it will be a nightmare if there's an algae outbreak. Dosing/trimming/WC routines become a chore when everything grows so quickly.
For me DIY is still a good thing till you can afford something better. There's always the top brands out there whom the founders started as DIY people.
Regards
Stan
|