250w DE on 24 gal for me.
Heat is a issue for sure with my tank had to buy a chiller.
I also have a bit of a problem with too much light for some pieces of SPS that I have. My Catspaw I can't get any father than the bottom of the tank. Every time I try it starts to bleach. Some other pieces are doing great though.

yah the heating isn't to bad of a issue for me i have a fan running on it so it somewhat works im just worried about keeping my corals and such but i think it should be fine, other than that everything seems to be going great i have it on a 2 scheduled timer that pretty much runs it at 2 different times a day about 7-8 hours a day, the temperature pretty much stays in between 78-79 sometimes 80 so thats working fine only thing that worries me is now the skimmer, any ideas on a better skimmer or should i go for the gusto and buy a new cube tank and get a sump going? =) =)

Sorry if I missed it, but what kind of corals are you planning on keeping anyway? You may have issues with some corals bleaching from too much light.

wanting to keep sps some lps

I think you may have difficulty keeping some LPS under that strong lighting. If it was SE instead of DE you would be more likely to get away with it.

Wait though, you said your tank is 19" deep? Maybe you could get away with the DE then... Is it a hex tank then, or? What are the rest of the dimensions?

its 19"x13"x30"long

My tank is 20" deep and I have too much light for some of my SPS. My caps, catspaw,and millies are not responding that well.
The other side is that I have Monties, and a few others (I don't know what they are called) that do really well, and my clams love all the light.

When speaking dimensions it's always l x w x h so yours would be 30x13x19", right? Eeep, that's an awful shape to use as a reef! That's going to be a real pain in the butt!

A DE MH does a poor job of spreading light, but is much more intense than a SE. A SE bulb spreads the light much better and produces less hot spots (spots of higher intensity). Both SE and DE bulbs will light a 24x24" area with most reflectors. The SE will do it more evenly, and the DE will do it more strongly. Neither will do a good job spreading the light over the 30" length of your tank. It's going to be rather dim on the ends. This may work to your advantage though as you could keep the lower light corals on the ends of your tank.

I assume this will be your first sw tank? If so, I would recommend you get a bigger tank, it's easier to keep stable. Your light would be great over a cube shaped tank or a shallow cube. Something 20x20x16" or 24x24x18" or something like that would be great. Much easier to light, and also easier to rockscape it. Just a thought...

no this will not be my first sw tank, will be my third, but i used fowlr with softies before and im just getting into a real reef tank, im thinking a cube tank would be a lot better so i will keep my eyes open for a cube tank and maybe a new light

I think your light would be great over a cube tank. It's a great light, no need to replace the light! Check out King Ed's, they usually stock a few cubes at decent prices. :)