[Old Man Of The Sea]

OK ladies and gentlemen, its time now to agree or not, thumbs up or down on this lighting spec for my to be SPS reef tank 8'x2'x2' with a DSB of 4" to 4.5"

The light quote is: for the metal halides - 3 250 watt (Screw in bulbs) (Retrofit reflectors with Reef Optix 1 ballasts. These reflectors allow the heat to dissapate. These lights will be spaced out to equally cover your aquarium, placed in the middle of the tank

For the T-5's: for the backround fill lights I recommend putting 6 48" atinic lights. Placing 4 lights on the front and 2 on the back. These will give you very good fill lights to complement the metal halides. The ballast ( 3 of them) are IceCap units. The end caps are waterproof and also by IceCap. I'm not sure who manufactures the reflectors are by, but they are highly polished units from I think IceCap. The bulbs I was thinking about are 48" 54watt atinic.

Buddy

[pogodzib]

Typically you want MH bulbs to be spaced to cover 2' of tank, which would mean 4 bulbs over a 8' tank. If you only go with 3 bulbs you'll get some visual difference in lighting in different areas of the tank. Also, how is your tank braced? Most standard 6' tanks have 2 braces. If your 8' tank has three cross braces, your bulbs may line up directly over the braces.