Lighting question

[subwayjd]

I am setting up a 55gal reef tank. I have done my research and am now in the ordering stage of the equipment. For lighting I have chosen the following to retro fit within my canopy and would like to hear comments on whether eventually this will be sufficient to support corals as well as fish -
canopy with two 150w MH lights and two 96w CP actinic flourescents (two 3" fans) and moonlights. The tank is a standard sized 48" long 55gal and I plan on having LR and a 4" sand bed. Filtration will be with an Eheim 2218 thermo wet dry material filter and added HOT skimmer - I also plan on adding a wave maker but haven't ordered yet (any suggestions?)
As for lighting I believe I have ordered more than necessary - true? or at least adequate. How deep should the sand bed be? any advice on material or sand type (I was planning on using commercial LS) pros cons? vs. crushed coral.
Thanks in advance for all your help - great forum !!

 

[juggalo124]

nice lighting setup. I wish i would have started out with metal halide lights. i chose power compacts and ive only had the light for a few weeks and i'm wanting metal halide already. depends on what your going to keep but i would say its at least adequate for corals and such in a reef tank. metal halides are strong lights (as you probably know) and any photosynthetic thing should do fine. One thing you might wanna check on the lights though is the Kelvin on the bulbs.
As for the sand vs. coral i have no prefrences yet. (im still new to this) i started with crushed coral (local fish shops suggestion) and i put a few pounds of live sand around to "seed" the bed. I have a minimum of 3 inches in my 29 gallon. Once again im new so dont make any plans based on what i say. just giving you some feedback.
Also, for wave making in my tank i use a Natural Wave pump timer. maybe you want something better but i hooked that up to my two Maxi-Jet 900's and its been keeping me happy. it was about 48 dollars includeing shipping.
-Trenton