total watts?

What are you wanting to keep in the tank? I keep softys in my 30 reef with two 96watt pcs, however I could go lower on the wattage but I do want to add a bta soon.
 
Like you, softs corals and maybe clams but i am not sure. i have aprox. 135 watts right now (65w atinic and 65w 10,000k). Do I need to upgrade my lights, put more watts?
 
For clams you will need to upgrade, I would go with mh for them. For softys I would keep what you got and put them in the middle or closer to the top of the tank, because 29gal tanks are kinda deep and pcs dont penatrate the water very deep, also with pcs you need to replace them ever 10 to 12 months or so otherwise they wont work as well. I have a 30 long with 192 watts of pc's and my corals are doing fine. In the tank I have pom pom xenia, shrooms, ricordia, kenyi trees and psp and there all doing fine under the lights. So if softy is all your going to keep then IMO theres no need to upgrade, however, if you want to keep more than softys I would go metal halide or t-5 s with mh being the best choice.
 
For metal halides a 250 watt would work fine for clams anemones and more light needy corals. I dont know enough about t-5s to give a recomendation on them, but I do know with t-5s you cant go by watts per gal, because from what I understand they give off more light. I have seen a fellow hobbyist keep clams anemones and many types of corals under 216 watts of t-5s on his 55 gal tank and they all looked very happy and healthy. Metal halides are time tested were as the t-rs are not so I would stick with metal halides, but its up to you. Do you have a canopy? If so I would just get a retro fit to save money, if you dont I would get the pendant, sunpod, or a light like the sunpod that also has the atinic lights with it, however if you get the pendant you could probably use your pcs too.
 
Before you shop around for them I would ask on this site, because you could savae alot of money here. I have seen some killer deals on this site in the way of used light and skimmers. Good luck.
 
On my 29 (standard 30 x 12 x 18), I went with a 250w 14k Hamilton SE on an EVC electronic ballast. I like the combo and the color. I have a 10 inch tall canopy over the tank, so heat really hasn't been a problem. The canopy has an open back with a fan.
 
One more thing on the metal halide, with them they give you a 2 foot radius per light so the extra 3 inches on both sides if the lights placed in the middle would most likly be a good spot for shrooms and other softys.
 
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