MH distance from water

firecopemt

Member
Ok, here is the deal. I have a 2 X 400 watt MH system that will be supplemented with 440 watts of VHO lighting, on a 75 gallon tank.
I will be building a new canopy for it, but was wondering if I would be able to get by with the MH bulbs 6 inches away from the water until I can get it built?
I know that heat will be an issue, and I have four 5 inch fans that I could mount in the current canopy.
What do you think? disaster/cooked fish/coral waiting to happen?
 

adrian

Active Member
I wont say it will fry your tank, I ran 3 175s on my 75 and they were only mounted 4" off the suface, i now have 400s mounted 14" off the surface. But with 400s I think 6" would be pushing it a bit. I think it will cause a heat issue, no matter how many fans you have, but most of all I think the light distribution will be very concentrated under the bulbs. You could run the halides for a short period of time each day to combat the heat, but your definitely going to have hot spots that might stress certain corals. HTH
 

adrian

Active Member
I think it would lead to more trouble than its worth. Wish I had room for 4 VHO tubes ;)
 
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