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I am planning a 120g reef (48" x 24" x 24"). It is my first reef tank after 30 years of fw and plant tank experience. I have decided on pendant lighting over an open top to make it easier to work on the tank as well as make it easier to control heat buildup.

The two brands of pendant lighting I have seen are:

PFO pendant lighting with remote magnetic ballast. Options include 2 x 175W MH or 2 x 250W MH, and 2 x 48" NO or VHO actinic bulbs, plus 2 regular fans of 2 icecap fans.

Aqualine Buschke "Aquaspacelight" with internal magnetic ballast. Two double-ended 250-watt 10,000K bulbs with the choice of actinic cf lighting. No fans.

The pros and cons that I have seen and read are: AB pendant looks better, PFO system has a bulky remote ballast, AB ballast may hum a lot. Prices seem about comparable.

I don't know which one to choose. I can't look at the AB unit in person, only over the internet. I have seen the PFO unit in stores but I can't tell much about the fan or ballast noise, because of the ambient noise in the stores.

Anyway my questions are:

Does anyone have one or the other of these units, can you recommend one?

Is the hum from magnetic ballasts a problem?

Are there any other brands of pendant MH lighting to consider?

Can I go just with 2-250W 10,000K bulbs (AB model) without actinic supplementation, will it look good? (again I can't see these lights in person to check them out).