halide heating ??

[dailey76]

I have a 45g tall tank 36w x 12w x 24h. I am trying to upgrade my lighting to mh but am told the heat is too much for my canopy. I only have 9 inches from canopy top to the water and i do have a glass cover. I am wanting to run one halide with 2 96 watt pc light to supplement i will be wusing a push pull fan configuration to help with heat but I have been told that these lights would heat up enough to break the glass cover. If any one know if this is the case let me know. I am planning on at least 150w halide. And I currently have not decided my livestock yet but just want a versitle seteup. Any help is appreciated.

 

[acrylic51]

I'd try to get the MH at least 12" from the surface of the water and definitely remove the glass top regardless of using MH's or not.....

 

[dailey76]

since there is the clearance issue should i instead run 4 96w pc's ? And if so would they need fans for heat. Also would there be any limits on what could grow with them? I have read that if running that type system should use actonic bulbs and 5500k-10k bulbs with a ratio of 1:1 is this correct?

 

[acrylic51]

IMO the best bang for the buck would be to run T5's instead of PC's.....JMO, but think you'll get better light output from the T5's

 

[dailey76]

so you think i would do better with something like an icecap 660 and run 4 vho's? how much heat do they put out and are they as long lasting as the pc's?

 

[nanahugs]

I run the T5 bulbs which are HO and cooler running than MH. There is also a fan in my unit that blows the heat out before it can heat up anything. My unit is also sitting on my glass canopy with no problems. I am looking into MH because I have a BTA, but I am also leary of the heat output and having to use a chiller in my 40G tank. Good luck in your search.

 

[juiced_rl]

I just went through this issue in my canopy
Remove the glass you need the gas to exchange but will have more evaporation(speaking of I need to check my sump today)
I had a space issue for fans and I ended up putting one in the middle top to blow air at the water

and I put one on the side to blow air across the water

I ended up disconnecting the top fan and just have the one blowing across the water the temp only changes about 2/10 of a degree.
When I had both fans going it would drop the temp like crazy it would drop a full degree in less then three minutes and keep going
One fan should be plenty

 

[dailey76]

juiced how big of a tank do you have? i was looking to do the exact same thing one fan on top one on the side. I like the idea if heat builds up that both will cool down tank. you never know when the ac in the house could go out. So if i remove the glass how much of a difference in water loss would i ecpect i maybe replace 2 gallons a week now.