Upgrading to 40 Breeder

[fauxjargon]

Hi everyone. I have been running my 10 gallon nano for 4-5 months now and have been successful - nothing died and most things are growing well despite some sketchy equipment choices and no ATO - but that's neither here nor there.

My plan for my 40 breeder is to keep it simple and low energy - I will be using a sumpless setup with an algal turf scrubber and no skimmer and 1 lb/gallon of high quality live rock. My substrate will be either bare bottom or a very shallow bed of largish aragonite (2-4 mm).

This option keeps my total water pumping wattage very low - 15 watts pumping for the turf scrubber and 20 watts for the circulation pumps.

As far as livestock goes, the only things I have set in stone right now are:

2x Clarkii clown (or ocellaris).
1x Orchid Dottyback
Snails and hermits
1x Sixline Wrasse

Would Bengaii Cardinals work with those other four fish? What about Bengaiis and Ocellaris clowns instead of the Clarkiis?

And now onto my main question: Lighting.

I see many examples of successful SPS growth in 40 breeders with 4xt5HO. I'm not really interested in keeping SPS or even really LPS - this will be a soft coral dominated tank.

My plan for lighting is to use a 2xt5ho with high quality individual reflectors. The tank will be an all-in-one setup so I'm not worried about lighting the back 2-4 inches, so I'm mostly worried about light in a 36" x 14" area. My plan is to have my two t5ho reflectors spaced about an inch apart 3 - 4 inches off the water.

I will also have a single t8 30w actinic for dawn/dusk lighting. I already have everything to do this - a nice reflector for the t8, ballast, endcaps and the tube itself - so it will cost me nothing except power and a new tube eventually.

Will this lighting setup work for what I want it to do (Softies and some LPS)? What two bulbs should I use? I was thinking dual 10Ks + the 30w actinic.

[greech]

That lighting setup sounds fine for softies and some LPS. Clarkii's get pretty large and kinda mean when they grow up. For a breeder I might stick with smaller clowns (JMO). I think the cardinals will be ok from a compatibility standpoint but space would be my concern. These cardinals get pretty big too and the like to hover in open water so if you go with a lower aquascape then they might do ok. Don't get multiple males though. Probably going to fight especially in a smaller tank.