[APD] The Art of Lighting a BowfrontTank

["Rachel Sandage" <rachelsor at hotmail_com>]

I have a 72 gallon bowfront tank (All-Glass co.). It has the AH Supply 
pre-made enclosure with 4 55W PCFs over it (220 W total). It works - plants 
grow well, and so on - but it doesn't fit well. I can push it forward on the 
tank to get good light onto the foreground, but then it is not aesthetically 
appealing, and the plants in the back tend to grow towards the front of the 
tank, making the tank look narrower than it is. Or, I can push it to the 
back of the tank, but then the foreground plans get shaded by the midground 
plants and tend to grow straight up, and the tank overall looks darker & not 
as pretty.

I want to stay with the PCFs and have considered two solutions:

1) Raise the light box off the tank by 6" or so. This would lessen the light 
intensity hitting the plants (by how much?), but would give better coverage 
as the light would spread more. I think.

2) adding a custom made bowfront top (actually, I would redesign the entire 
top) which has a 55W PCF bulb for the front, curved portion of the tank. 
This would solve the light problem in the center of the front, but possible 
leave the front "corners" unlit and maybe ugly looking. The 96W would 
provide better coverage, but whoa, that's a lot of light and I wonder if it 
would seem the same brightness as the area lit by the end-to-end 55s in the 
back.

Ideas? Advice? Share your experiences?

Thanks,
Rachel 
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