I am about to move to the Metal Halide lighting either to one 400w SE or two 250w SE’s from a current T-5 and PC's setup. My tank which is about 21x52x22 deep a 115gl DAS has 2” glass bracing front and back and 2-2” glace braces 12” from the sides leaving a 24x22 open center. I am pondering two different lighting and reflector approaches.
1. A 36” PFO 36 inch Parallel Reflector 36x12 with two 250w SE’s which if centered in the tank hopefully would extend the bulbs hot spot just inwards of the two glass braces giving me 500w of light.
My fears here are the two bulbs hot spot may center themselves over the glass braces and defuse/shadow the light some, but I like this approach with more distribution of the light with two bulbs instead of one.
2. A single 400w SE and a Lumen Bright reflector 20x20 over the center.
My fears are would the 400w setup be too much light for a tank only 22” deep to the sand bed. There is also a big possibility of undesirable shadows which may later require additional lighting on the two outside sections. Now I like this option because it is supposed to be one of the best reflectors out there, but will this burn my softies, LPS and SPS 8” deep from the water level.
1. A 36” PFO 36 inch Parallel Reflector 36x12 with two 250w SE’s which if centered in the tank hopefully would extend the bulbs hot spot just inwards of the two glass braces giving me 500w of light.
My fears here are the two bulbs hot spot may center themselves over the glass braces and defuse/shadow the light some, but I like this approach with more distribution of the light with two bulbs instead of one.
2. A single 400w SE and a Lumen Bright reflector 20x20 over the center.
My fears are would the 400w setup be too much light for a tank only 22” deep to the sand bed. There is also a big possibility of undesirable shadows which may later require additional lighting on the two outside sections. Now I like this option because it is supposed to be one of the best reflectors out there, but will this burn my softies, LPS and SPS 8” deep from the water level.