Ok, GaryP, you don't want to get me started on lighting, do you? If you study the tank of the months for years past on RC, look at all the articles and read all the posts, a go see what others are doing, you will find 2 things. 1 - Almost all of the tank of the month awards have 10K and 420nm (the violet one) actinic in the ratio of 2 or 3 actinic to 1 10K and look fantastic. 2. People create variations on the theme and with too much variation you will notice their tank colors are horrible and they have tons of troubles. Their clams and zoo colors are flat to brown, even the ultra grade ones and they don't get tank of the month awards. RE: the lfs's around town. They have blue crocea clams and they are all uglier than dirt if you ask me. Check the lights and none of them have this combination. So, are their clams second rate or are their lights wrong?
Next observation is on the bill. 400 watts in a single light gets you into totally another ball game in heat and expense. I would use 250w and forget about 400. Not because a lot of light is not great, but, because you can add 2 250s if you just have to have that much light and still not get into the same scale as a 400. 400's are very hot and heat drives the bill up even more because it makes the wires hot creating resistance (means more $$ for the power company) and you must have more fans to keep it cool. A breeder tank is 36 inches long and very shallow as tanks go, and with the right reflector pendant you can light it with a single bulb. I've seen a couple tanks with DE's in the 14K range without actinics that had pretty good colors, but they would improve a lot with actinics. I've seen the RBTA anemones under these and their tentacles are all fat, faded and blunted like an anemone thats been in captivity a long time and not maintaining its true shape or growth pattern. The ballast brand, bulb brand and combination all are different so far as results go. There will almost always be a wave length missing that will flatten out one of your favorite blue colors and make it dissappear. The only way to avoid that is to combine different bulbs. So far as actinics go, the cheapest route is VHO and the results are great. People again have reinvented the wheel, but it just costs more to do the same thing with pc's or T-5's. Useable bulb life on a reef doesn't last any longer (as advertised) and they cost a lot more than the VHO's to replace. This does not mean they are not good, they do provide a lot of light in a very small bulb and from what I see, if they are true 03 (420nm) actinic, they work great. Some are just blue lights at about 460nm or above. You have to check the brand because the phosphor combinations are pattened and some companies can not make the 420nm bulbs. Either way, they are all marketed as true actinic even when they are not. If you had enough space and money for a combination of 420 and 460 to suppliment a halide, it looks fantastic and very under water. But, without space or the extra cash, the 420 is what you need for the best color pop. Think about the best meetings with the most fantastic colored reefs we've seen in MAAST. Think about where and who does the most frequent fragging. Those all have or had the 420nm actinics and 10K lights in at least 2 to 1 if not 4 to 1 ratio. Some were VHO, some PC's, and a few T-5's combined with MH of either 250w or 400w.