Sorry to say this but if you are looking at growing corals and you are looking for something cheaper than $24.95 then you really should not keep a reef. There are some corals that need VHO, or MH (metal Hylides). 10K will make the corals grow pretty fast and the 20k very slow. I like the 14k personaly you get a little of both. Just to get 2 VHO ballast and set up you are looking at over $100. What size is your tank? For my 75 I have 2VHO atinic ( Priced around $150 w/ bulbs), and 2 250 14k MH (Priced around $500 w/ bulbs). My VHO is one of the low ends of quality and I'm looking at upgradeing them in a later date to handle 4 bulbs. So the minimum price of a 4' tank is going to cost about $150 to grow VERY few corals. One math thing to look at also........ Add up all the watts you use for your display tank..... Divide that by how many gallons of your display tank...... That will give ya watts per gallon. I have heard that you could be as low as 4 watts per gallon to grow some corals. With my set up it is 9.6 watts per gallon.
