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SPS, MH and bulb distance
I can't find the poll/thread from years ago, so thought I'd revisit this.
for those running MH over SPS tanks, what distance are your bulbs from the water? |
I run SE (no shields) and they are about 7" from the surface.
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150 de and it's 8-9 inches
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I'll have to measure to be sure since it's been a while since I hung the lights and I don't remember but my goal was 12" for the lamps (not the bottom of the reflectors but the bulbs themselves). Wanted a little more height for a couple reasons: reaching in with a hand without burning my elbow, heat mitigation, and better coverage/less shadows/less-straight-up-and-down-angles so that corals have some hope of side lighting since before with lamps closer to the surface I always had corals dieing out at the bottom and I really want to avoid that with this tank. I forget but there was a fellow out east with a similar sized tank to my own (was big on reefescape.ca when that board was still around) who went 12" and I sort of modeled my lights after his tank.
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I've got a 250W Coralife about 4" above the water of my 40g, though I would like to raise it up a couple of inches to get better coverage (square tank).
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I have my lights within 5" if the water surface...
I run 2 HQI 250W halides and sometimes I think the light is too intense in the topo half of my 24" deep tank as I often have new corals bleach out even if they came from a comparably lit tank. I have been contemplating moving them up to around 8" off the water surface. Looking forward to more hobbyist input here. |
SPS, MH and Bulb Difference
Yet another thread that has caught my attention, so much wealth of info on this great site, thankyou everyone.
I am fairly new at this hobby and have just started to collect some SPS. I have a 48" x 30 " tall x 18" tank and I have got 2 x 400W mogel base MH set at 17 " above water, ( that is the bulb ) it gives good coverage and appears to reach the depth okay, I guess time will tell, lol I also run two T5 454 any hints or suggestions always greatly appreciated. Kevan |
We run two 250w about 8in from the surface of the water.
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Quote:
Keep us posted on SPS growth and color at that height! |
I'd move mine up if it were easy to do. I had to cut back my lighting bigtime as things were bleaching even under the 20k. I think I'll be going about 10" from surface to actual bulb in the new tank. I'm trying to puzzle out a nice way that each reflector can slide up or down into position within the canopy so they are easy to adjust for lighting and for access.
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