Lighting for a deep tank

[sammyg]

I have a question for all you knowledgable people out there. I have a brand new 45 gallon tall tank, so it is 36" long but ~24" deep. My intentions are to start out with a not-very-ambitious reef, but make sure things won't be too hard to upgrade down the road if I want to get more difficult corals.
I had been thinking about getting a 2x96 watt PC, but I'm a little concerned about the depth of my tank. Would these lights be suffient for not-very-demanding corals, or would I be stuck having to pile them all at the surface?
I know that a MH set up would be much better at penetrating the water - how much would I need for this tank? Would a single 175 or 250 watt 10,000K be enough to cover 36", or would I need two? And I assume that would still need to supplement that with some PC or VHO lights, right?
Thanks for the input, I'm open to all suggestions.

 

[rbmount]

My 90 is 24" high and I run 2 x 250w 10k halides and 2 x 110w atinics on it. Before i had 2 x65w 10k PC and 2 x 65w atinics. You will be happier if you go ahead and bite the bullet and get halides.

 

[birdy]

I have a single 250w MH over my 36" tank, I like it because I was able to keep light intensive corals in the middle and less needy corals on the sides. Now that I am going to an all sps tank I will be getting another 250w MH for the tank (and probably a chilller ).

 

[fish2morow]

MH 175 or 250 watt should be enough, extra flourescents may not even be needed until you add more demanding life.
I have a 58 show with a single 175 watt MH 14,000 K and it lights it very well, as the corals are reproducing and doing well under it.
Tank measures 21" high, 36" long and 18" wide, has 4 inches of sand but not a lot of LR, so most corals are on bottom. Tank is connected to a 70 gallon reef right next to it, with a 20 gallon refugium under for filtration.
175 MH would be my minimum choice, although I would probably go with higher wattage. That way your not so limited on choices when you go full blown reef, and you will!
Just an opinion.....