He has a phillips ballast right now, but It won't fire up a 10,000k so that's why he needs the new ballast. He is also planning on getting rid of the 3 tubes of attinic when he goe's with the upgrade. Any thoughts?

Check out some threads on RC about this topic. If you like the way 10k bulbs look, then you probably could get rid of the actinics.

http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin...e&pagenumber=2

My personal preference would be without actinics because I like my white sand to look white. If you prefer the underwater look, then keep the actinics. The extra light will benefit the animals too.

Sure, my thoughts are you still haven't answered the questions!! WHY is he going to 10k? Let's assume he has a reason. He will most likley want to keep the actinics. I have 10k, they need actinics. If he has a M59 ballast, it will fire the 10k bulbs. What ansi code is the ballast?

If you want colorful stony coral pink purple blue one word!

Radium :lol: :lol: :lol:

if you want softy and lps: light green, solid yellow,and brown

saki is the cheapest but need more actinic to give same resutl as 10k

Stephane, it's easy to generalize with this sort fo stuff. Strangely enough, one of the most colourful tanks in town is lit by a 400w iwasaki with 2 vho and 2 no 4' actinics.. Though I can't complain about my colour with the radium!

Whose tank is that? :mrgreen:

No offense, but sometimes I think my lighting is a bit too blue. We are using 2x radiums 400w 20K

Jeanna, he's talking about Brad Gemmell's tank. Really nice colors under a 65k.
You should come by and see my tank after my Radiums get delivered. Not too blue at all. Maybe you'll want to switch ballasts!!!