the two back sides of the stand are wide open...not enclosed, and are about 10 inches from each wall. have a heat controlled cooling fan down there and a fan in the light itself on the fuge. its a chiller with lots of open room in front and behind it (stand not enclosed) i havent even had the chiller come on yet....set at 78 and i havent had the MH on for for than 6 hours a day. now to 4....but tonight when i get home will just turn them off. temp has been between 76 and 77. yes...its tight down there but enough room to operate with (i hope) i put some chromis in there a week ago....LFS gave them to me no cost...and in the bag was a ghost shrimp (we didnt see it till got home). i thought for sure it wouldnt make it, but i figured would help the initial ammonia spike so i put him in there. i didnt see him for 5 days. figured dead for sure. this weekend he was all over the place....i cant believe he made it!!! ammonia had spiked pretty good too, i thought he was the reason...nope. a few days ago brown algea started, so turning off MH should help and i added a phos-reactor hanging off fuge yesterday. i think by end of this week i might be good to go. ammonia has come down from way over 1 to less than .25 nitrites were at like 4 or so, now less than .25 and trates really havent done anything yet. which is weird...i figured trites going down so much, i would see trates...not yet.
