[youtube width=”680″ height=”400″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4fqg2bE3F8[/youtube]
Plasma lighting is an exciting technology with extremely efficient light production. The latest crop of light emitting plasma fixtures using the Luxim ST 41 have better color rendition, a higher light output and they play nicer with reflectors. This video of an 800 gallon SPS reef tank compares the look of 1000 watt halides and the Gavita Pro 300 LEP fixture, with and without more than 800 watts of T5 lighting to balance out the color and the spread.
The 300 watt Gavita Pro LEP is no match for a well ballasted 1000 watt metal halide coupled with a large reflector but the fact that it even compares is impressive enough. Just from the look of the video it appears that the 300 watt plasma from Gavita is significantly dimmer than the thousands but maybe a dual fixture using two Luxim ST41 and consuming 600 watts would be getting pretty close to the output of the 1000 watt halide. If nothing else the color rendition of the Gavito Pro 300 is not too shabby and the SPS corals in this Dutch reef tank will likely benefit from over three thousands watts of high quality light.
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