I just upgraded. Yea ha!!!

[Candyman]

I wanted to be sure I had enough lights so I added. I now have 2(110w) VHOs. 1-acti. 1-50/50 act-day. I also have 3 powercompacts. All smartlamps now. 2-65w 1-96w. This give me 446 watts total for my 55g reef 8.1watts per gal. Do you think I will be able to grow all types of corals now?

[Doug1]

A lot of stuff will survive under that lighting but really light hungry clams and a lot of SPS wont do as well as they would under Metal Halide. It the actual spectrum and PAR intensity not watts per gallon that figures in, 150 watt standard flood light over a nano wont have the same effect as a 175 watt MH and its not the 25 watt difference. Not to discourage you and good that you have increased the lighting but watts per gallon isnt the only factor in the equasion. I am going to jack mine up to about 660 in my 75 but I still wont do most clams or scleractinian(SPS) corals. Its easy with my setup to add an extra set of end caps to each ballast as opposed to changing over to MH lights, but the more the merrier

[lil Anemone]

For Most SPS,Clams and some LPS, you're gonna want MH's, which certain light bulbs will give you a much better PAR output, along with an awesome "shimmering" effect you just dont get with flourescents.