Oh man, you sound just like me ten posts ago! I am also building a 29 gallon reef setup; you wouldnt happened to have purchased an Eclipse 3 hood, as well, did you? If the answer is yes, youre eerily like me and my situation... First thing you do is make sure you dont have the burden of the Eclipse system, and move on from there.
The next and most important thing you need to consider is budget; you want anemones? Cant do it without at least power compacts, if even that. A bulb tip Im pretty sure requires metal halide lighting. If you have enough free cash on hand, I would go custom. One Power Compact fluorescent in Actinic (blue), and one 175-Watt Metal halide in a wood canopy, drilled and vented with fans, with a plastic or acrylic "window" to keep water away from the metal halide bulb. Just incase you dont know, metal halides explode when water touches them. Yeah; you want that protective pane of arcylic there, also so it wont heat up your water too much. As long as you do this in a wood or metal canopy, you wont have a problem with heat, as long as its vented and possibly actively cooled (fans).
If you dont want the cost of custom, or even metal halides at that, I know there are a few anemones you can keep with just two 65-watt Power Compacts. Power Compacts are great cause theyre economical and make a lot of light; I use a PC ballast/hood thats made by Custom Sea Life that also has two moonlights in it; great for the nocturnal behavior of my Mandarin Dragonets.
Believe me, everyone here has something different to say about lighting and strength and spectrums and so forth. If you listen to everyone, eventually the perfect plan will become clear. I will tell you this: over a 29 like mine, I couldnt get away with anything less than power compacts (PC); and that leaves only metal halides (MH) as an option, which I am even now scheming on incorporating into my existing setup.
Hope that helps, along with all the posts youll probably get as well!
