[Dudester]

While everyone is entitled to their opinions, and believe me they are all sought after and welcome here, the purpose of this thread is not to analyze any particular vendor. This is intended to be a tank diary thread. I believe John mentioned that our tank vendor does not routinely deal with the public, which may be why some folks have had less than ideal experiences with them. Fortunately, John is not a "Joe Public" citizen; he is a member of the elite force know as a LFS Owner, which entitles him to a few privileges to which we mere mortals are excluded. Hopefully AG&E will expand their services in the future so that more people can acquire their beautiful products. I'm just glad I was able to get one!

jjjimmy - Great question. We patterened our lighting from GMFett's 600 gallon reef, which you may have seen here on RC. His tank is also 8' long, but it's 4' wide (ours is only 3'). His tank is lit with (6) 400W MH's, aligned as (2) rows with (3) MH pendants each. The 3 pendants cover the length of the tank quite well, and with a foot less in depth, we'll probably be OK with only 1 row of lights. Our tank will be less-SPS dominant as well (the kids like to see soft corals swaying in the current more than tree branches), which is another reason we think we can get away with only 3 MH's. And lastly, the system is expandable and upgradable - if we find that we want to add more SPS or if there are gaps in the light, we can always add another pendant.

Thanks for the compliments, everybody!