Yeah, I'm at 55% right now and slowly moving up. Probably should have started lower, but lower seemed dim visually (granted my eyes were burning so it probably wasn't) .
I originally figured I'd need the 24 since this fixture isn't meant for the 40. It's meant for a 75, with the 40 being the testbed. But yeah, based on the results, a single strip of 18 should work. It may not grow SPS, but it'll definately support the whole range of softies, macro and maybe LPS. Still need to figure out some way to do the exterior and mount it now. Might just hang it. Or find an old T5 to gut (shame the 3ft one is dying and the 4ft one is spoken for for the new 125, the reverse would have worked perfectly...).
And since we (finally! after 3 months of extensions) closed on the house...everything now moves ahead.