SPS, MH and bulb distance

[Aquattro]

I've got the canopy well vented now, with the ability to pump the air outside if I need to. Dispersing the heat into the room as you stated might make it a bit too hot around the house, if you know what I mean

[Parker]

Reviving an older thread. I have my lights about 6" off the water surface. 400W DE and after talking with Lance and looking at some other threads I think they are a bit too low. I'm proabbly going to raise them up to about 12" or so

[jostafew]

I'll pitch in; I don't have a lot of SPS experience but passing on info that I read (and am currently using as a guideline) my single 250w DE bulb is currently 12-14" off the surface, with the bottom of the fixture about 6-8" up. Like others my fixture is suspended by chain that allows for about 6" adjustment to accomodate varying light levels as the bulb ages. I try to keep a minimum of 12" between the bulb and the water surface to minimized the amount of heat that ends up in the tank. With the pheonix 14k bulb in my DIY fixture I get about 40000Lux at the surface, about 13500Lux just into the water, about 8,000 mid-tank and about 4,000 at the bottom. My tank is 24" tall.

[MarkoD]

I have 4 x 250 watt about 6" above the water. No problems at all, I have corals 5 inches under water and they're doing great

[Lance]

225g: 15" from the bulb (400W 15K)

90g: 8" from the bulb (250W 14K)

[christyf5]

3 x 250W SE shielded, ranging from 11.75" to 3.5" depending on whether I remember to pull the light rack back down after working on the tank.