Lighting options for sps

[reef_dude76]

Hi everyone. I was directed to this forum from the sps forum to ask some questions about lighting. I am in the process of building a 180 gallon sps tank. I have purchased a Hamilton Technology 6 foot retrofit kit with 3 SE 250W MH and two 140W vho actinics. After talking to some of the guys in the sps forum I am rethinking my bulb purchase. I was going to go with 2 10K 250W and 1 14K 250W MH, but after a very informative intro to the concept of PAR in the sps forum, I am wondering if I should go with different bulbs. A couple different brands were suggested including Iwasaki, which seem to have the highest PAR when compared to most bulbs, but I was wondering if the Hamilton magnetic ballasts I have will fire bulbs other than Hamilton Tech's bulbs. I figure since they are 250W ballasts they should be able to handle other 250W bulbs. But I thought I would check here for some guidance.

Thanks

[vishboy]

In this thread, you see the types of ballasts and what bulbs they will fire.

HTH
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=201570

You might want to check out this site also. On the right side there is a link to where he tested a whole bunch of 250w bulbs and ballasts.

http://www.cnidarianreef.com/

THT,
Vishy