Opinions on MH lighting

[rickjames]

Hey,

Well I am in the midst of a large tank upgrade and I was hoping to get some opinions on MH lighting. Right now I am running a small 30G with a 250W XM 10,000K bulb on a PFO pulse start ballast. Almost all my corals so far are SPS. I am going to be getting a 155 Gallon tank (5'X2'X2') and am currently trying to figure out what MH halide lighting combination to use. I really like the colour and intensity of my XM bulb, so I was thinking of running XM bulbs on the new tank, but I am not dead set on it.

My plan (so far) was to either buy a PFO double 250W ballast for 250$ and run three 250 bulbs over the tank, or to buy two son agro 430W ballasts (~90$ each) and run two 400W bulbs with my existing 250W in the middle of the tank. Has anyone run the 400W XM's on a son agro ballast?

What combination of bulbs/ballasts would you setup if this was your tank



Thanks!