new to SPS corals/ lighting?

[alans22]

i have a 30 gallon long aquarium; i have 151 watts of light all power compact.

1- 96 watt quad with a 50/50 spectrum
1- 55 watt cool blue

arranged like this

-----------------------------------------------------------
' 9696969696969696 '
' 9696969696969696 '
' 9696969696969696 '
' 9696969696969696 '
' 55555555555555555555555555555555555'
' 55555555555555555555555555555555555'
' 55555555555555555555555555555555555'
-----------------------------------------------------------
in reality the 96 quad is centered (it is a retrofit)

i know that my system does not have enough light to support SPS even very close to the top i just tried a montipora and it started to bleach so i gave it back to the LFS. I was thinking of adding another 96 watt quad in the empty space on the upper right. Will that be enough (247 watts 8.2 watts per gallon), any suggestions?

 

[reefwick]

Watts per gallon isn't a good way to look at this. You need more intense lighting. I'm sure you can keep some kind of SPS under what your proposing but were still talking PC's. I could go on in a long explaination here but do a search for waterkeepers thread entitled "let's shed some light on the subject". It explains everything you'd ever need to know about aquarium lighting. It's a long read but so interesting and informative. To give you a short answer here, 250 watts of PC isn't the same as 250 watts of MH.

 

[Fast Fred]

Some SPS may do well, try a Monti Cap for example.