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#1
05-13-2006, 10:03 PM
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Light Suspension Height
Hey guys,
Just picked up my first metal halide light but i'm not sure how high to suspend it over my tank? It's a 20 gallon Long, and a 175w Metal Halide. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thx in advance Alex 
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#2
05-14-2006, 12:05 AM
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I keep mine about 10" from the water.
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65 gallon tank, 3 gallon refugium, 90lbs LR, 50 lbs live sand, Coralife Super Skimmer 125, 24" 250 watt DE Pendant w/14K Hamilton. 1 ocellaris clowns,1 Tomini Tang, 6 line wrasse, 12 turbo grazer snails, 12 nassarius snails, 12 Cerith. Open Brain, Metallic Green Brain, candy cane coral, 1 enchino frags, and 2 maxima clam.
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#3
05-15-2006, 06:48 PM
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reply
It really depends on your reflector too. I have a 400 watt MH with a crappy reflector so i'm not getting the light output I should be. Consider that a reflector runs on a similar concept to a magnifying glass. You can change the intensity or spread of light depending on the reflector and the hight above the oject you intend to illuminate. My sugestion is to play around with it until you find your "sweetspot".
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THE BARQUARIUM: 55 gallon cube - 50 lbs LR - ASM G3 skimmer - 30 Gallon sump - 22 Gallon refugium / frag tank - 4x 24 watt HO T5's - Mag 9.5 return - Pin Point PH monitor - 400 watt XM 20K MH in Lumenarc reflector - Dual stage GFO/NO3 media reactor - 6 stage RODI auto top up -Wavemaster Pro running 3 Koralia 2's. Fully stocked with fish, corals and usually some fine scotch http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=55041
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#4
05-15-2006, 06:53 PM
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It depends on if this is your first light, or upgrading.
If you are upgrading from say PC or VHO, then start with it higher up than 10", then lower it down over time. I would also only run the MH for say 6 hours, increasing an hour a week to help the coral aclimatize to the new light. I run my metal halides about 15" above the surface of the water.
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#5
05-17-2006, 11:51 PM
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Why do so many people run their MH so far off of the waters surface.
I have my 150w about 2" above the tank and I do not experience any heat issues. My corals never seem to take off like others I have seen, is it possible that I am too close to the water? I find if my light is much higher I get a lot of shadowing in the tank.
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If it is just us, It seems like an awful waste of space.
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#6
05-18-2006, 02:08 AM
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I have mine about 6" off the waters surface, mostly I was more worried about splashing the bulbs, plus the tank stand is pretty high and by the time I got the hood on there was only a few inches before it hit the ceiling (low ceilings in the basement) so mounting them higher wasn't an option for me (not that I would have done it anyway
 )
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Christy's Reef Blog My 180 Build Every electronic component is shipped with smoke stored deep inside.... only a real genius can find a way to set it free.
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#7
05-18-2006, 05:14 PM
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Quote:
Anyhow in answer to the original question, I run my halides about 6" off the surface too.
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-- Tony My next hobby will be flooding my basement while repeatedly banging my head against a brick wall and tearing up $100 bills. Whee!
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