My metal halite bulb is 175 watts,I've seen them for 50-90 bucks. The ballast for 150 bucks. But the one bulb lights the whole 125gal tank pretty well. And those rays of light are beautiful. I also have a 30" 50/50, a 30" daylight, and two 18" 20,000's from my old tank. I would deffinatly recomend METAL HALITE now that I've seen the differance first hand up next to my other lights. STEVE