[Napervegas]

I had old m58? and reeflux 10k with 5 foot vho's and recently upgraded to icecap 250 mh ballasts with sunburst 12k's, I like the single ended bulb choices much better, but thats like coke or pepsi, to each his own....I like this look alot better. None of my friends are "reefgeeks" but have had many comments that my corals look "better" and the water looks "clearer" from non reefers. I think its a no brainer of vho over t5 for the purple glow look. I am not pro/con t5, i run t5s on my office tank and it looks fine, but the vho's just seem to make the corals "pop" to my eye. I have tried about 6 different t-5 bulbs and have yet to see my clams or zoas light up under the t-5s like they do under the vho. I run a pfo vho ballast and am really happy with it. If you are interested in an older vho setup i have a hamilton setup that can run 2 or 4, three foot bulbs that I would trade for corals/ reef safe fish/ gizmos etc. Its just collecting dust currently, it would only be good to mount in a canopy as its not the prettiest setup in the world.

sump your 40 breeder is ideal, I would run that skimmer internally and put in a few baffles. The oceanrunner pumps are fairly quiet, easy on the wallet, and can be run internally or externally. I have the same eheim on my CA reactor, I dont think its going to have enough output by itself, for a return on a 120, maybe on a 55-75, . My in tank flow is a bunch of seios and mj mods on the back wall blasting into the rockwork and 2 nano tunzes on the front corners. love the tunze's except they really should find a better way of attaching the plastic holder to the magnet, nothing a little super glue cant fix, but compared to the regular tunze's the attachment method is really weak. However they take up much less real estate and look pretty cool compared to what else is avail these days........ In my previous house I had a fairly elaborate closed loop setup with 2 darts and oceanmotions on it and a couple surge tanks. The surges I would do again, however surges are best for inwall setups with good noise barrier, and they tend to increase salt creep (so they work but have their own unique advantages/disadvantages)the darts/oceanmotions I would not, by the time you figure the costs of all the plumbing, valves, etc the in tank circulation is easier, more transportable when if you move, and less maintaince, and a lot less chance of weakening the glass with a bunch of extra holes..