Considering lighting upgrade

Hello,
I've got a couple of questions I'd like to put out for response.
First, I've got a 95G reef tank with the CoralLife hood (2x65 10,000K and 2x55 Actinic) that has required alot of maintenance. Ballast, sockets and bulbs. With this, and my interest in HQ, I'm looking to upgrade.
I'm thinking about 14K HQ supplemented w/ a couple of actinic and moon lights. Looking around on the net, I've seen several images showing the 14K's and they look to me like I may not need the actinics. What do ya'll think? I understand it's alot of opinion and personal preference. Maybe my question should be, what would my corals think? (mostly soft corals now, but looking at some SPS)

My hood is roughly 7" away from the water (top of hood glass). I was thinking about getting two 250W HQ's and installing them in open reflectors which were mounted (with washer spacing) to the top of my canopy. And installing the two Actinic's on the front and back of the hood flanking the two HQ's. Of course, fans on either end of the hood for air flow/cooling. Can I get away w/ the open reflector on the HQ's? Any other comments on this approach?

Victor

 

Hmmm......I have two 250W MH in my fixture and they get way HOT! I dont know if I would attempt to leave them without any glass protection. I like actinics with the MH

 

With HQI's (double-ended) bulbs, you MUST have protective glass. They do not have any UV filtration in the bulbs. Not only will you burn out your corals, if you accidentally look at them, you can do some SERIOUS eye damage.

Mogul based MH's have the UV filter built into the glass of the bulb itself and the glass on those fixtures is to prevent explosions if water gets splashed on the bulb itself.