30" deep tank lighting

[hawk40]

30" x 30" x 30" softies and lps only,give me your idea of the perfect lighting set up.

[jeffbrig]

Well, MH fixtures are generally good for a well lit area of 24x24, but your tank is 30x30. You can probably stretch it a bit by raising the light, but would need to compensate with higher wattage. A 250 might work if you truly have low light corals. A 400w mounted higher above the tank may be better, though. You could also look at the lumenarc pendants, they offer a wider coverage area than most pendants.

Another possibility is to go with a T5 or VHO setup. With a retrofit kit instead of a premade fixture, you could arrange the bulbs any way you want to get complete coverage. If you go this route, you will lose the shimmer effect from the MH point source, so I don't consider it to be the 'perfect' setup.

FWIW, the tank I'm setting up is 72x30x27, so I had a similar dilemma with the 30" width. I'm planning a row of 3 250W MHs down the center, with 2 T5s in the front, and 2 T5s in back running the length of the tank.

[thrlride]

Go with a 250 watt MH fixture and t5's. May be more light than you need but it will look great!