Jiddy,
I just recently saw a friends coral propagation set up in his home...its all lit by VHO's....I was very impressed to say the least. He's growing these corals for sale out his home, only by VHO lighting, so they are a very viable alternative to MH's...
After seeing his set up, I got off my butt and started messing around with my IceCap 430 VHO ballast. I have NO experiance with electrical type stuff, and this caused me to wait so long to get this done...
I went to Lowes and asked one of their employee's about it, ( I also brought in all the parts so they knew what they were dealing with) I was really amazed at how easy it was to get done. Seriously...it took me about an hour to do.
The intimidation factor was the toughest thing to get over. After that, its all down hill.
Nick