Suggestions Lighting 48" Bow

[RiOnRoxXx]

A very close friend of mine is thinking about upgrading his light setup on his 48" bow from his current PC/t6/t5 fixtures. He Currently is running: 48" Odyssea t6 fixture in the back>48" Odyssea PC fixture in the middle>24" Coralife t5 fixture in the front of bow.

He wants to keep his plastic canopy as pictured below.

My questions to the fine people of RC. How would you upgrade his lighting to accomodate his canopy and his needs. Currently the tank is softies, but moving forward possibly a mixed reef if we can figure out some lighting options. The only problem I see is lighting up the front "bow" portion of the tank, with the use of the canopy. The canopy's top can be removed, so maybe hanging MH pendants?

TIA

-Ryan


Oh yea, here is a pic of his tank that we're trying to light up so far...

 

[RiOnRoxXx]

Oh yea, most of the xenia and rock has been removed since this picture was taken. He wanted to go with a new look. Reason for the new lighting upgrade

 

[jhoff]

Remove hood get something with T5/MH or all T5

 

[Typlus5]

I have a 72 bow as well and not satisfied (comfortable) with my current 4x54 T5 set up (10K/14K/2-actinics) so, found an awesome deal on a 48" Sunpod 2x150 HQI metal halides w/moon lights.
With T5s I felt the wattage was good but just quite wasn't there to keep the corals I'm getting into. Plus the halides have that awesome shimmer that is irreplaceable.
I'll be building the canopy around the Sunpod and making a retro kit for actinics from my current T5 fixture.

 

[RiOnRoxXx]

Thank you for the input

 

[jmjohnson]

Sunpods are good, but they are quite expensive and do hot have t5pc bulbs for a dawn/dusk effect, but they do come with the moonlights. Your best bet is to find a used set of 150W retro halides and add a set of t5ho bulbs for actinic supplement.