try the power compact/moonlight fixtures from customsealife. Marine Depot sells them
here and many other vendors sell them as well. I have a 38 gallon All-Glass, 36" long, and I've had my PC moonlight for about 2mo now. I love it. Almost 200 watts is more than enough for a 38 gallon. The fixture has a built in fan, and comes with a daylight and
actinic bulb on separate plugs so you can put them on separate timers, running the actinic a little longer for a dusk and dawn effect. The moonlights are on another separate plug - I leave them on all the time (only 1 watt each; 3 of them in the 36" model), and they provide a neat glow at night when the lights are off. You don't even need a separate canopy; just set the fixture right on top of the tank with the supplied "stilts."
I researched this for a while, and this is honestly the best-designed, easiest to set up, and most economical option that I found.
To be honest, I really had wanted metal halides - I still want them some day. But they were just too much of a hassle for me for right now. You either need a canopy (which I don't have) or you need to be able to hang a pendant (which I think would be way cool, but I couldn't figure out a way to do it without drilling into my ceiling) Someday I'll upgrade my tank to something like a 120 gal, then I'll get some halide pendants. For now, the PCmoonlights are just what I need.
