Well, a slight update in terms of equipment. The 48" T5's always bothered me because of the shadows on the edges. Since my tank is 5', I wanted to switch to 60" T5 bulbs. I had an old PFO retro kit for 4 x 110 watt vho's, so I went to town and started making. I used standard sheet aluminum and bent it to my liking (I'm in the siding business so this is scrap material for window capping). Then I went to a custom lighting supplier and picked up some annalux (99.5% reflecivity aluminum that is used for reflectors). I got a cut off from them for $10 - this was enough to make 2 sets of lights. So now I have 4 x 80 watt T5 HO's. 2 on either side of my halides. I like it. It's super bright. Now you'll see in the pictures that I have an extra end cap in between the two 60" bulbs. I made room for a 48" bulb in between in case I want some extra bang or to tweak the colours a bit. I have an old workhorse 7 that I can wire up to those. But for now I'm super happy with the 60" bulbs.
I still have to bend another aluminum "cap" to cover the wires above for a cleaner look.
Anyway, thanks for looking. Kind of a boring update, but it's an update.