Lighting for a 30g with SPS.

[kwirky]

for your tank's dimensions I think T5 would give better lighting than MH will. And the PFO pendant is a little too focused to cover your tank across the full 30 inches. A 24" tek light or the likes (make sure it's HO and individual reflectors) would outperform a MH, especially watt for watt.

sanjay has data on the PFO reflectors and the spread's too narrow for the entire width of your tank, and overkill if you were using 2.

now as for something you can reuse on a larger tank, a sunlight supply lumenmax 3 might be a good choice. It'll do a better job than the PFO of covering your 30" wide tank, and when you upgrade the tank, you just add more lumenmax's. The lumenmax is for a 2'x2' area but you might be able to stretch it enough for your tank. You'll have some light over-reach front-back I'm assuming.