Lighting - AquaMedic, PFO, Coralife

Hello,
I am setting up a 180g reef tank, switching over from fish-only. I am leaning towards an AquaMedic 72" 3 HQI-250w, 4 T5 39w. My LFS is suggesting a Coralife 3 MH 250w with 4 96w PC.
Any suggestions, recommendations?

I have been using the Aqua Medic Oceanlight pendants for 3 years now with great success...

I have also tried many different bulb variations ranging from 120$ bulbs to 60 dollar bulbs and have to say the best I've used so far are the pheonix 14k.

I also have actinic supplement.

Just my thoughts.

Here is a pic of my lighting setup.

Aqua medic!! No question about it! youll be much happier. its a whole different level of quality.

Aqua medic for sure is quality. It seems though you would be getting more light with the coral life. Im using coral life pendants with pc supplementation. see my gallery. My advice is to purchase the best you can afford and get the most for your money. one draw back on the coral life pc is bulb replacement needed every 6 to 8 months. t-5's longer. so you might want to do a bit more research. hope this helps.

to some degree your right, but the extra wattage is only in the suplamental lighting, which from what ive always been told, really isnt a big part in your total wattage per gallon cause its usually actinics. anyway let us know what you decide to get.
I dont know where your buying your stuff, but if you call champion lighting ask for gary, he can give you some great advice on which ficture to purchase, probly even give you a good deal on one.

I wouldn't rule out the PFO items. For the price, those of us with a budget, they are really good.

My experience with both i perfer using the PFO lighting system, the different style names of other vendors out their provides wide range of light. coralife is a litle over price for their units. PFO does its job. i have in one of my systems 3 HQI 400 watt @ 14k each running with 4 VHO 160 watt antinics

Both PFO and Coralife make a good product, and a very affordable product, but theres no comparison to aqua medics. Something else to consider, Both I and another local reefer got a Killawatt meter and tested some different ballasts. The aqua medic 250 watt ballast was pulling 360 watts. the other fixture we checked was a Hamilton 250 watt. which didnt even pull 250 watts. These results came from 3 aqua medic ballasts and 2 hamilton ballasts so they seem to be accurate readings. now I dont know how that will affect the total output of the bulb, but I would guess its gonna increase the light output? anyway maybe thats why alot of people get better results with stoneys under aqua medics? just a thought!

I am going with the AquaMedic from Champion, with the electronic ballast upgrade.
Thanks for all of your advice.