[bubbletip2]

Originally posted by glxtrix
cool man and thanks for your sugestions....I think i'm going to stay with my 175's for now. As far as the actinics only reason why I'm going with the VHO's is I like to have some extra coloring befor and after the MH's come on and turn off, and to me, the VHO colors is amazing. Reflectors arent really an issue because of some bulbs with reflectors build into the bulb.....granted its not the same, but actinics really dont do much for most of our corals, so there really us no need for the reflector. I figure with 3-175 and the VHO's, I'll still be under wattage than going with 3-250's, wayyy under the heat issues and definately close to PAR, if not beating some 250's As far as raising the reflectors, thats really not possible. The canopy was buit as a flip top so I'm limited with raising. I think once the 3rd gets installed, there will be a lot of light bouncin around.

Totally understand. To each their own. Some people like the dawn/dusk effect you get from VHO's or T5's. Just as long as you are not requiring that light for growing coral. For me, I would rather have more room in the canopy and not have to replace a bunch of bulbs and purchase the extra ballast for the VHO's. I actually had an Icecap 660 and sold it because I did not want to bother with the extra bulbs.

Sorry I misunderstood what you were trying to do. I thought you were upgrading to 250's. Just for reference, I run a 250w 12K bulb on my 30g cube and have a 7 inch Lumenmax 3 reflector(Diamond Light design) and keep it 8 inches from the water. My temp stays between 78.5 and 79.5 - sometimes goes over 80 during the summer. Good luck with the new lighting set up. I would love ot see how you get the VHO's in? Keep us posted.