Glass MH enclosure suitable for reef tanks?

[Chin_Lee]

I've seen these glass enclosures for HID lamps at hydroponic stores and the main advantage (as I was told by the informative staff ) is you can divert majority of the heat from the lamps before it affects the temp of your room (water in tank). These enclosures were made for the 1000W lamps so they are a little bigger than the 250W that I am planning to use. You can also attach a reflector on the aluminum ends.

I know that MH lamps operate better when hot but would it make a big difference if a small fan is used to slowly exhaust the heat out the other end?

Does anybody know if this type of equipment will be beneficial for a reef tank

[robbyville]

Hi Chin,

I'm not speaking from experience so take this as a thought only...

It would seem like if the enclosures can handle a 1000w then they should be fine with 250's Depending on how you have them set up it might help to lower evaporation on the tank as well. I don't see how they would affect the heat in the room though since the heat would still be expelled into the area of the pendants (unless vented with a hose to another area).

My question is this; will these enclosures be further enclosed in a canopy or will they be suspended pendant style from the ceiling? If the latter then this is a similar set-up to most pendant style MH systems where the fans are enclosed in the fixture.

The one cautionary note that I would make is that if within a canopy, the idea is not so much to cool the bulbs but to cool the air below them and onto the water as well. This does make for more evaporation but for me at least has really helped to keep the tank cool during the hot summer. FYI my fans are located just below center on my canopy side panels.

HTH,

Rob

[Son Of Skyline]

Do you mean glass shields between the bulb and glass? If so, I think a bigger issue would not be heat, but the amount of light reflected by the glass, and the way the glass may "filter" out the light that does enter your tank affecting the overall spectrum. I'm not an expert in this area but since I've been a kid they've always told me that glass filters light spectrum.

I know it makes a big difference in reptiles (full spectrum is very important there). I've seen chameleons kept under glass covered bulbs wither away, and others from the same litter grow healthy under open bulbs.

[robbyville]

Mason makes a good point! the only thing that I would add is that some people do recommend the use of a UV filter between the bulbs and tank, especially if the bulbs are mounted low and the tank is acrylic. Apparently UV can eventually affect the durability of an acrylic tank.

Rob