Ideas on vho an Mh setup

My B-Day is coming up perfect time to get the wife to splurge on some new lights. I have a wooden canopy on the tank and have an area that I can fit some lights. It is 70"L x 15" W x 5"D the lid is on a piano hinge but I want to replace it so it raises straight up like its just elevated over the tank rather than like a door. If that makes any sense. I have read all these treads on VHO, MH, PC, and T5, I definately want to do 4 VHO bulbs and Three MH bulbs. I am worried about heat fire and price? trying to do it all for $300.00 is it possible? I want it to look something like this. Pics of the canopy are in the gallery

 

http://www.3reef.com/cgi-bin/album.pl?photo=jose_c/100_0026.JPG

the link didn't show up here it is

 

Now i dont know much about VHO but i do have some MH. Heres what me and a friend bought click me the price is hard to beat for a MH retrofit kit... just plug it in and there you go.

Marc.

 

Wow.. That's a good price Marc. Although it is refurbished.

Hellolights.com has some good DIY stuff:

http://www.hellolights.com/4laaromo4lvb.html

 

I could be wrong, but isn't HPS different from MH. I mean aren't the ballasts different, and aren't the bulbs the wrong spectrum.

just curious.

 

You are totally right! Good catch...
HPS - High Pressure Sodium. A very red light.

 

Yep... just checked that out to... HPS = red/orange spectrum MH = blue spectrum... I bought mine a couple months ago and havent used them yet... ill have to see if they really are HPS. If so can i still use them??? What do you guys think?

Marc.

 

Ugh that sucks. It won't work on a reef too well, at least visually. Not sure technically what it would do, but I'd think it would result in major algae growth. HPS is good for plants.

 

i hooked one up on my girlfreinds 20 gal just for fun to see what they looked like... there 10 000K bulbs and they looked pretty white to me. My freind (reef_novice a 3reef member also) has them on 6 hours a day and coraline algae is growing good. At first he had a big algae problem but he had them on 10 hours a day. He cut back to 6 and everything seems to be going good. He doesnt have many corals, just button polyps that are doing very good he sais. Anyways ill check them out tonight just to be sure... Its not like i have the cash to buy a whole new set of lights anyways.

Marc.

 

Sure it's a 10k HPS bulb?
Sounds like MH to me...
HPS are common as street lights, security lights, etc... orange, yellowish like light.