I just bought the PFO 250watt MH retro and the balast and entire kit is awesome!!! Includes aluminal casiing for the balasts and everything. It weighs about 18 lbs and is big! Anyway, I also have a PFO 2x96 watt PC retro. The kit is very nice. The balasts run cool and come in a white enclosure with two togles for the lamps. I found the light cables to be super long (10ft or so). The cables also feature a quick disconnect feature at the balast. If you mount the kit to the underside of the hood, like me, it makes cleaning a breeze, b/c I just disconnect the cables and lift the whole hood up and off the tank without moveing the balast around. The only thing I did not like, is that the reflector I recieved was not predrilled for the PC bulb clamps. Also, the PC bulb clamps were flimsy compared to others. If you have to drill your own holes, make sure you are 100% straight and inline. My holes were slightly off and when you push the bulb in place, it will not sit perfectly straight and bumping of the hood would sometimes cause the bulb to pop out of the clamps, scary at times, but the bulbs never hit anything hard, lucky I guess. As for the performance, I was only able to keep bulbs for 6 months. I lost three bulbs to the tips cracking, despite adquate cooling. This is more common with the longer 96watt tubes and you should be better off with your 55's.
Good luck,
Scott
