I'm very quickly realising that if you spend less now for a lesser product, you pay for it again pretty soon. Case in point... Started with PC's, because they were cheap, $130 for a 30" fixture. Ended up going with a metal halide in the end. That was a waste. I went cheap again, while not knowing much about mh, and bought a 6500k halide with a bulb, for around $80. It wasn't a halide, but a mercury vapor, and while it did work, the color was horrible, and I couldn't put any other bulb on it. Upgraded to a 65 gal, and bought a second halide, this time went a little better, and got a pfo 14000k. Saved money there, but it took me 2 years to find out that bulb kindof sucked. Changed the mercury vapor over to metal halide, and bought 2 10000k xm's. Finally have good lights. Look at how much money I wasted just to get lights I knew were good from the beginning. It's part of being a newbie, being stubborn that is, the better of us just realize it earlier and save money doing it. This time I went with the best T-5's I could find, and I'll be replacing the bulbs with ATI (so far as I can tell, the best bulbs out there). Energy efficient, bright, and most importantly, I can change the color of the tank with one $22 bulb. Go good, or pay for it later.
