Measured actual electrical on my tank

[sphelps]

might be worth while switching your halide ballast to electronic. I would imagine the HQIs are running pretty hot and at very low efficiency at that wattage.

With pumps the rated wattage should actually aways be higher than the steady state. Reason being is the pump will use a more power during start up, using the proper rating allows you to plan your electrical configuration properly to avoid tripping breakers and overloading circuits. However many companies are now rating there pumps at steady state to give the appearance of higher efficiency, in fact I would bet you're actually getting higher peaks than you observed, the device you used simply isn't fast enough to pick them up.