As per Perfectblue's suggestion i have ordered a 542 watt halide light sys.
Now for a 55g SW tank how far from the water should i have the lights set? I dont want to fry my fish. Or anything else. It comes with a hanging kit so i just need an idea as to how i need to hang the light.
TIA

542 Watts?!? WOW! That's a big electric bill... think of it, $1/hour at my current electric bill rates.

EDIT: Sorry that wasn't right... it's $0.02 per hour for a half KWH. Heh, big difference.

The 542w lighting sys i have has two 175w halide bulbs. Is it possible to run 150w bulbs in this sys??

Is this the fixture you have? http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp?PageA...PROD&ProdID=218

If the fixture came with two 175w metal halide bulbs then why would you want to buy brand new 150w bulbs? I'm pretty sure you could use 150w bulbs in the system since the ballast is rated for 175w bulbs but I have no personal experience with this so I can't tell you for sure.

Yes, that is the sys. that i have. I was asking about 150w because it seems to be difficult to find 175w bulbs except from aquatraders. I have seen several different 150w bulbs from different makers and thought that one of them may be a better bulb. At present the 175w are doing fine. For the money the sys. is not that bad. It is not top of the line but it did not cost $800.00 either. :D