At this point, the hamilton fixture is on its way to where I am moving to. I expect to see it next week when I depart for South Florida. I don't get a chance to check on reefs.org as often as I would like but I greatly value the opinions posted here. So by all means keep them coming. I consider myself smarter than the average bear and I have advanced degrees to prove it. However, I have found myself to be a reef ignoramous. It's not like I haven't done a good portion of the reading but I have still developed an expensive aquarium graveyard. In trying to think outside the box, I put myself in the box. When the new fixture arrives it will be the third 48 inch fixture I own. I have two other current fixtures and in my ignorance, I loved them. They're shortcomings have become obvious over time and I wonder what was I really thinking. In essence, I should have just saved up and bought the hamilton or a similar fixture year ago. I would have saved myself about $800.
In trying to find new lights, I decided not to go with the cheaper options anymore which eliminated Current and Coralife fixtures. The Giesemann fixtures were pretty expensive and I don't know if they really are worth the premium price. (I have actually spent enough at this point to have already bought they're mid range offerings.) That narrowed my choices to Hamilton, Ice Cap, Sun Light Supply, and Aqua Medic. Some preference was given to USA based companies, because lets admit it, our economy could really used it.
Lastly, I like the lunar lights when done right. I prefer to have it included because tie strapping it on after wards may give me a better lunar light option but affects to overall look of the tank. I also preferred fixtures that included the bulbs and had individual, easily replaced ballasts. The Current systems have internal ballasts which are cheaply made ( I think in China) and are a pain to replace.
At least a couple comments above were in favor of Hamilton's offering. They were also highly regarded at the LFS, more than the Coralife they had on sale there. The Hamilton had features the other setups did not include like shields, and included hardware for hanging the light as well as attaching it directly to the tank.
At this point, that's good enough for me. Though I really would prefer not to have to revisit this decision anytime soon.
Yeah, the Ice Cap deal with two rows of "LED bulbs" looked attractive but I digress.
Thanks for taking the time to provide input and as mentioned above, I hope it keeps coming because I have decided to run any new large purchases across the forum to alleviate growth in my graveyard. I didn't even mention all the pumps, sumps, and supplements.
