Hey guys, I just found this board, however I have been designing my first saltwater tank which is a 55 with a 40 breeder sump, and was planning on using a deep sand bed, live rock and a algal screen filter as my only filtration. This is going to be a FOWLR tank. I am a college student so everything has to be done as cheap as reasonably possible.

The sump sticks out the back further than the display tank, so I made my 1.5" return go horizontally accross the back of the 55 tank and the screen will hang from it into the sump, to create a waterfall. I was planning on flowing about 1000gph and figured 2 sections 13.5" wide would work for the screen, but it is a 26" drop, so I am looking at a ~27"x26" screen.

My issue here is I am not sure where I should start with lighting this, and I can realistically only light it on one side (welll... kinda... it would be akward and funky to light both sides) And with the size of this screen it would seem I would need a TON of light. So does anyone have any recomendations on cheap lighting, or on the design as a whole or any aspects of it? I am pretty good DIY kinda guy and am willing to attempt about anything.

Thanks in advance for your time!