lighting for dummies 101

[canadawest]

Hey Christy, if you do decide to go the VHO route, I also recommend the Icecap ballast. I use an Icecap 660 in my setup. It's true that it will run NO lamps at near VHO brightness. And you can have any combination of NO, VHO and even PC lamps on the same ballast. Just make sure the endcaps are VHO endcaps, and preferably the waterproof ones. New ones are expensive, but last forever.

When I first setup my lighting I used a pair of URI VHO lamps and a pair of $5 GE 6500K Ultra-Daylight NO lamps from Canadian Tire, as I didn't feel like spending the extra $80 on another pair of URI VHO lamps right away. When you look at the NO lamps next to the VHO lamps, you can barely tell a difference in brightness. And you've seen my tank, the corals didn't seem to mind.

For flexiblilty and reliability, the Icecap ballasts can't be beat. And like Titus mentioned, they are dimmable, but it's not necessary. For best cost/performance I would prefer the setup that Troy mentioned, 2 MH lamps with two NO actinics. You could always add the Icecap ballast later and upgrade the NO to VHO if you wanted more output.