please dont listen to these people seriously, one thing i've noticed in this hobby is that people say oh its cheap it must be garbage... kia's are cheap but they will get you where u wanna go just as good as a mercedes will...
that being said im a strong believer of these lights they are cheap and you get what you can afford. thats the great thing about these lights i ran the 2x 250w mh 48" fixture for almost a full year on the stock bulbs/ballasts and i had insane growth in the tank.
when i came into some money i upgraded the bulbs to a XM 10k along with ice cap ballasts and then the coral really took off (lower kelvin rating on the bulb vs the stock 15k bulbs) but the great thing is i ran it for just about a year, and when i could afford the money thats when i upgraded....
and i wanna comment on ihooklow's comment boy your ignorant, that kind of attitude just p!sses me off. i had a friend that his ford taurus caught fire with your logic that means all 5 million of the ford taurus's out there will catch fire to..also there were a 1 occasion where that happened but that was with the magnetic ballasts, since then they have upgraded to electronic ballasts.also i would like to note that the house that did catch fire looked like it was atleast 50+years old who's to really comment on how good the wireing was in the house was it chewed by rats etc....sorry to be mean but damn please know your facts before you make slander comments.
there is a thread called like odyssea metal halide review its a really good read its about 90pages total soyou might wanna allocate a long time to it. i read through that before i decided to purchase my fixture and i've been quite happy with it...
but as far as price goes here's a round up
fixture 48" 350$ shipped
2 ice cap ballasts 70$ used (130$ new) <-- i like used because that gives me money to spend on other things... like booze & hookers ha
2 replacement bulbs 65$ each (XM 10k DE lamps)
total cost of fixture for me 350$ then 1 year later 270$
for a grand total of 620$us
now
price comparison from marine depot all 48" fixtures 2x 250w mh's
coralife pro 1180$
current usa 770$ <-- also not sure how good stock ballasts are
now granted the current USA one is fairly close in price but that is all up front that you have to pay as well, imo i rather spend 350$ then be able to pay the rest a year later or so.
also i will state something else something like this is good incase this is your first setup, and your not quite sure if you really wanna get into the 1k fixtures and what not, kinda like give you a taste.
shrug on a side note i wanna comment on the other comments i love this forum dont get me wrong, but you will find alot of bad information from people on here. i've read alot of bad comments about people that comment on something they either A do not have, or B have never used or even touched.
im not here to try to change your mind im trying to give you experiences from someone who has actually USED the fixture for a long amount of time.