Lighting question for smaller tank

[urbanhellfire]

Originally Posted by Whatigot

Lumens is important, but par is more so.
very simply put, par is the ability of any given light source to penetrate the depths of your tank.
Higher wattage does not always mean higher par.
if you do a search under "halides" you will find some very good articles and discusiion on this....

Lots of good stuff when I searched Halides, Iam guessing par is the light reflecting hood that forces the light into the tank so little light is wasted?

From the top of my sand bed to the bottom of my bulb is about 10" , now I can see this being a issue for someone people with deeper tanks but I think with this smaller tank I should be just fine one way or another