lighting for a 40 gallon breeder

[shred5]

I decided to start a new topic on my tank cause the last topic does not fit no more. I decided on a 40 gallon breeder. its 3'lx13"wx16" deep so it a very shallow tank. I had decided on a 4 lamp 96 watt power compact system. I want to keep sps's. geedoug had suggested I go with mh. Now I am rethinking my lighting again. I am afraid of mh lighting cause of the heat for such a small tank. Any opinions on if the mh system would cause extra heat? Also would I only need one mh bulb plus actinics. What brand would be best? Were is a cheap place to buy from? I cant do pendant. I compared the lumen output of one 175w mh and 2 30" standard output actinics and it was a lot less that the 4x96w pcs. Also what color and type mh lamp would you use?
Sorry about all the questions. I have been keeping reef tanks a very long time but I left the hobby now for several years cause of a major spill in my apartment with my 75 gallon reef.

Thanks
Dave

[shred5]

oops the dimensions of the tank are wrong. 3'lx18"widex16"high.
Dave

[marine machine]

i have a 40breeder also. when setting it up i was first going to go with a MH pendant but then decided to put 2 VHO fluorescent lights under a canopy with a reflector. i think this would be enough considering anything you put in there will be closer then 16inches to the top. this comes to about 190 watts of light and should be good enough since the tank is so shallow. this should even be good enough for sps. if you went with MH i dont think overheating would be a problem if you had fans in the canopy and the high surface area would help improve evaporation cooling off the tank. as for the color 6500 would be good. and a actinic.

[Reefkeeper]

shred5,
In my exp. with SPS, going with halides is the only way. you can get them to survive on VHO and also PC, but halide is the best way to go for color, growth, and of course, GLITTER LINES in the water. ther are lots of places selling SPS frags that will live and grow under VHO. PC kinda sucks due to the fact that the actinic bulbs dont stay "actinic" long. if I were you I wold do a 250 wt, 6500, or 10000K halide, plus 4x VHO. you can run 4 24" on a icecap 430, if money is the big prob. I would recomend though, if you can afford the few extra $$ to get the 660. I have tried the 175wt bulbs, and would never waste my time on them agian. anyway, if you are doing an all SPS tank, you will eventuly want some of the super colored SPS corals, YELLOW, PURPLE, BLUE, etc. they keep best color under halide.
oh, from exp. i would not go with an iwasaki bulb. that is how I did my 75, and when they are on you really lose the colors. despite what you read about PAR values, go with a bulb that will be estheticly pleasing to YOU.

Gene