help on lighting

[clevebill]

i have a 40 breeder with a 3ft sunpod with duel 150hqi phoneix bulbs.iam useing the legs that came with it and the bulbs are about 5 inches from the bottom of the bulb to the top of the water.now the question when i look into my tank the first maybe 3 to 4 inches is really bright almost looks saturated.if ya look at the pic on the homepage and the tank pic next to the t-shirt thats what it kinda looks like.as ya go look lower into the tank the water clears up alot.i notice if i pick up on one side of the fixture and raise it up about 3 inches or so that reall intense look to the first few inches of water really fades.so do ya think raiseing it will weeken the punch of light into the water or do i have enough light being the tank is so shallow.what are 150watt bulbs good for as depth wise.i should borrow the par meter and see where iam at in par levels.

 

[fsn77]

If you can borrow a PAR meter, that'll give you some useful info. It's not said how old the bulbs are or what color temperature they are, so there's some potential for adjusting the amount of light you're getting if need be. It's also not stated what type of corals you're trying to grow, so what would be enough light for some would not be enough for others. Considering the tank's dimensions and there's 2 x 150w MHs, I would generally consider that to be plenty of light, but a PAR meter would provide much more insight on that.