Help with MH Lighting

It is a tad late to ask this question but better late than never I guess. I just purchased this lighting kit from Foster and Smith Aquatics.

Metal Halide Lighting: Marineland Marine Series Pro Lighting at Foster & Smith Aquatics

I got the 48" for my 55 gallon tank. Is this a decent system or did I just waste a lot of money??? I just got a few sps corals and I was told the 4*65w PC I have won't really support sps under 6" depth. I wanted to upgrade anyways so this looks like a good system to me but I am fairly new to reef keeping and could be mistaken. Any information / opinions would be greatly appreciated. I should get the system by the end of this week so I will post before/after pictures then.

 

For that much money I am expecting it to be pretty nice.

 

Yeah I hope so too.

 

Wow, $850? and your probably going to want to swap out the stock bulbs with something decent on top of that . . . ouch. Its threads like this that make me glad I can build a nice custom canopy in a weekend and wire up any kind of retro lighting array imaginable for a fraction of that kind of money.

~Will.

 

That is pricey, i got 3 400w halides w/ 4 65w PC for that much.see if you can return it, and check EBAY theres better deals EXAMPLE:
http://cgi.ebay.com/24-Metal-Halide...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2c52ee1237

 

Same here. It's hard to believe they even price it that high and people still buy it. No offense to the OP.

 

I have gotten to the point that I don't really care about doing things myself too much anymore. I would rather pay the extra money to have someone else do it. I find myself so busy that I don't care to break out the solder station and tools when I can pull it out of the box and plug it in. I work with electricity every day and I like to go home and not think of wire. But I do understand the appreciation you have when you build something as good or better than a product on the market for a fraction of the cost. I guess I get lazy and click "Place Order Now" faster than I can draw up plans for things.

 

Like I mentioned I know that is pricey but I have purchased from Dr. Foster and Smith many times and have never been let down. But I have never purchased anything poor quality from them either. I am leery of EBay because I have purchased things from there and had used bulbs or broken parts or missing parts for that matter. I am more interested in if it seems like a good setup for a 55gal aquarium moreso than the price factor.

 

Nugio, I saw a very similar system to that on Fishneedit.com (maybe the exact same one) but I have talked with a few people about them and mentioned the poor build quality which steered me away. But it is just what people told me I guess you never really know until you try it out. I guess I did spend too much but I just bought a house so my tax return will pay that off no problem. I just hope it will do the trick. I am sure it will be better than my current setup though.

 

I think this light will work fine for your 55. (it is a bit pricey, but I've also had good experience with Dr. F&S.) Just curious, how much more would it be for the 250w MH. 150 will work fine, but you mentioned upgrading in the future. a 250 will allow you to get a deeper tank without problems