[RobinsonFam1]

ive just found 2 great places on the web to build your own lights!
ever heard of getting a metal halide setup (buying seperately on these sites) of 175 watts with bulb for about $114.00!!!!!!
same goes for power compacts!!!!
if youre interested in diy lights then id start here!
maybe you already know of these and im slow but here they are:

pet supply liguidators

http://www.1000bulbs.com

check it out and look around. 1000 bulbs is a much larger site than the liquidator

 

[wasabi]

1000bulbs.com
the only halide bulbs i saw on there sight were the 65 ks in 400 watt. every other bulb was worthless for a reef. i went the do it yourself halide route with my first one. i ended up replacing with an icecap electronic ballast less than a year later. i would spend the money on a quality set up now, rather than later.

 

[RobinsonFam1]

yeah i kind of figured that myself. you always get what you pay for. but sometimes you may just get lucky. i did notice the bulbs on 1000 bulbs were worthless for our use but the ballast are still dirt cheap with a 5 year warranty on them so who knows until theyre tried out.

 

[tdwyatt]

Actually, Doug at Aquatico is pretty reasonable for a quality product. If you go with MH at this point in time, unless you have a high tolerance for a steady humm, look at the Icecap mh ballasts (the HQI model will run any MH bulb on the market).

They are reasonably priced, the are cheap to operate, and they are dead quiet in operation (although they have a slight hum on initially striking the bulb until the arc warms up) I have also found that they run a higher PAR on literally the same bulbs than cap and coil ballasts (via Apogee meter).