What is the best brand name oh MH?

[Reason]

I am fairly new to the hobby and have decided to upgrade current PC lighting to halides. My question is for a complete 72" hood system what brand gives you the most for the money. I only want to buy the halide only systems as I already own pc's. If anyone can point me in the right direction I would appreciate it, my head is spinning from looking at all the options and to be honest I really don't know enough about the subject to make a intellegent decision.

[perpetual98]

Do you want a pre-fabricated hood or are you going to retro it into a canopy? I can probably help you out either way because I have both of those options available to me through my store. Let me know what you're after and I'll help you get a good deal.

Later!
Eric

[Reason]

I want a pre-fab hood only because its cleaner. Any help here would be great. I'm jay BTW. Pleasure to meet you.

[lReef lKeeper]

well i was gonna say ... you might what to get in touch with Eric (perpetual9 but as usual he is on top of whatever is moving on this site.

i dont know why it put that dang smilie in there.

[Reason]

I'm gonna wait for erics responce before I do anything, I have noticed that hes helped a few people out on this site. Thanks

[perpetual98]

My suggestion would be a Hamilton hood. I'll have to see if they can do the Halide and PC hood but not include the PC bulbs/ballast because you've already got those. You could go with something like an Current-USA or Coralife fixture, but then you're looking at getting halides and PC or other supplemental lighting built in. With Hamilton, you might have some more options.

I'll try to dig up some more info, but I'm pretty busy this weekend.

Check out my store at www.myreefshop.com for some ideas. I don't have any 72" stuff up there, but I can add it any time.

Later!
Eric

[PurpleAardvark]

Personally I like the PFO brand stuff. There reflectors have on of the highest output designs. They will also do custom work and are very nice to deal with. Carla at PFO who i have delt with for 2 years has always been nice about fixing any problem I have had. I work in a fish store and I have sold at least 100 different systems. I have also delt with Hamilton who I have the exzact oposit reaction with. many people have delt with them and had good luck. From my experence I have not. Current is ok, so is coralife. Nothing real stands out abot them except there price. There is also Sunlight Supply who is anther great company to deal with. Great reflectors and great customer service. If you don't mind me asking what size tank this is going on? Are you doing sps, lps, soft or mix? That can be a big infulence too.

[Reason]

The tank is a 125gal 72x 18x 24. The idea was to have a mixedtank of hard and soft corals. The softies Ihave now are doing exceptional.A friend of mine gave me a gonoparia about four months ago and I thought it would have died by now but it's still very much alive. But now I would like to keep the more light hungry species and halides seem inevitable. I like things to be nice and neat so a pre-fab hood is what I would like.

[PurpleAardvark]

Next big question what is your budget like. A sunlight supply (SLS) hood will run you about $1650 for a 3x250 mh hqi and 4x39watt T-5. A PFO would run you about $1200 to $1400 for a 3x175 or 3x250. Nice hoods just a bit pricy. hammilton not sure but the run specails seen them go as low as $1000 complete. as far as looks go check the different websits. As far as wattage goes I like the 250 hqi but you could get away with the reg. 250 Mh I think the 175 down the road you find that you want more. As far as what is the "best" IMO I would have to go with SLS. There HQI reflectors are ranked #1 for most light output there standard MH reflector is #1 to but it is 22.25" x 22.25" and would not fit on your tank, PFO 2nd for hqi, 2nd for standard MH. With most things in this hoby I would have about 40% of things are fact, 40% opion, and 20% known one really knows about. If you go RC (bad word i know)under the sponsers they will have PFO, SLS, Hamilton listed on there and you can take a look at the different fixtures and see which on fits you needs best.

[perpetual98]

The SLS fixture is probably overkill, and HQI are probably overkill. He's already got the PC bulbs that he wants to use to supplement the halides. All of my price books are at work. I'll look them up tomorrow.