Power compact lighting compared to conventional lighting

I was wondering something about power compact lighting. I heard somewhere that let's say, 110w of PC lighting is different in some way than 110w of NO or VHO lighting. Is this true? I have the 110w PC on my 29g tank which works to be about 3.8w/g from what you said is good or average.

They say the life span on the bulbs is 1 year to 14 months, in your opinion, do you think it is still wise to change them every 6 months, especially since I have 2 anemones? Any input would be great, and thanks again for the CD, I use the aquarium manager all the time to keep my test readings in!

Yes that's the general consensus e.g.: pc lighting is slightly more intense the no/ho/or vho

And yes I definitely agree to replace the lamps at that time interval

I've yet to hear any hard data backing up that claim however many hobbyist agree to that, although I've never used pc lighting. Having said that, everything I've heard about pc was good and to answer you question below about the life span, that is true they are supposed to last longer than standard fluorescent.so you should be fine replacing in 1 year rather than 6 months.

Having said all the positive things about pc lamps, the downside is that they do not have the coverage of standard no/ho/vho lamps. What I mean is the light is more concentrated in the area under the lamp (similar to halides).

PCs have their place for smaller type tanks and really wouldn't be practical for a long tank.