T5 Question
- Thread starter kevin34
- Start date
fishfreek
Active Member
I would say 6" above the water line max. That being said, your doors would be pretty small and depending on the door style, not possable (i am a cabinet maker). You can always make a taller canopy and mount the lights say, half way up INSIDE the hood to get your lights 4"-6" off the water. Know what i mean? Just a thought.
wangotango
Active Member
kevin, i know you were asking about my canopy. ill try to snap some pics soon but ill try to explain it. the top of mine opens completely so i can remove the fixture if i need, the doors in front are just for maintainance etc. the two ends have a 2" piece of wood that sits on top of the tanks frame, and thats what my T5 fixtures sits on. since its an aquactinics fixture it doesnt add any heat to the water, but being so close i have to clean the cover once a week because of the salt. hope that helps.
-Justin
-Justin
saltn00b
Active Member
Originally Posted by SCSInet
Wouldn't put them more than 8" off.
Penetration isn't so important as light penetrates air pretty easily. What you need to worry about is beam spread. The higher up you put them the more the beam from the fixture spreads out, making less light hit the water.
hey SCSI i vaguely remember seeing someone posting that T5 PAR values are dropping dramatically with every inch raised above the water line.
Wouldn't put them more than 8" off.
Penetration isn't so important as light penetrates air pretty easily. What you need to worry about is beam spread. The higher up you put them the more the beam from the fixture spreads out, making less light hit the water.
hey SCSI i vaguely remember seeing someone posting that T5 PAR values are dropping dramatically with every inch raised above the water line.
kevin34
Active Member
Originally Posted by WangoTango
kevin, i know you were asking about my canopy. ill try to snap some pics soon but ill try to explain it. the top of mine opens completely so i can remove the fixture if i need, the doors in front are just for maintainance etc. the two ends have a 2" piece of wood that sits on top of the tanks frame, and thats what my T5 fixtures sits on. since its an aquactinics fixture it doesnt add any heat to the water, but being so close i have to clean the cover once a week because of the salt. hope that helps.
-Justin
Thanks that does help a little. So are your doors below the fixture? I think the pics will help a lot. How tall is the canopy?
kevin, i know you were asking about my canopy. ill try to snap some pics soon but ill try to explain it. the top of mine opens completely so i can remove the fixture if i need, the doors in front are just for maintainance etc. the two ends have a 2" piece of wood that sits on top of the tanks frame, and thats what my T5 fixtures sits on. since its an aquactinics fixture it doesnt add any heat to the water, but being so close i have to clean the cover once a week because of the salt. hope that helps.
-Justin
Thanks that does help a little. So are your doors below the fixture? I think the pics will help a lot. How tall is the canopy?
reefraff
Active Member
How tall is the tank?
What do you want to raise?
What kind of T5 equipment are you running?
If the tank is only 14" tall and you are running good equipment you could mount the lights 10" above the tank and still be good for SPS. If your tank is 20" tall and you are running Nova or Catalina equipment you want the lights as close to the water as you can get them.
What do you want to raise?
What kind of T5 equipment are you running?
If the tank is only 14" tall and you are running good equipment you could mount the lights 10" above the tank and still be good for SPS. If your tank is 20" tall and you are running Nova or Catalina equipment you want the lights as close to the water as you can get them.
kevin34
Active Member
Originally Posted by reefraff
How tall is the tank?
What do you want to raise?
What kind of T5 equipment are you running?
If the tank is only 14" tall and you are running good equipment you could mount the lights 10" above the tank and still be good for SPS. If your tank is 20" tall and you are running Nova or Catalina equipment you want the lights as close to the water as you can get them.
The tank will be 2 feet tall and I will be using an Aquactinics lighting fixture. I want to have a full reef so I will want to be able to keep most kinds of corals(mostly leathers, zoos, and shrooms).
How tall is the tank?
What do you want to raise?
What kind of T5 equipment are you running?
If the tank is only 14" tall and you are running good equipment you could mount the lights 10" above the tank and still be good for SPS. If your tank is 20" tall and you are running Nova or Catalina equipment you want the lights as close to the water as you can get them.
The tank will be 2 feet tall and I will be using an Aquactinics lighting fixture. I want to have a full reef so I will want to be able to keep most kinds of corals(mostly leathers, zoos, and shrooms).
reefraff
Active Member
The Aquactinics fixture is designed to sit right on the tank if you wish. On a 24" tall tank keep the light as low as you can. a 5x39 watt unit on my 22" tall tank put nearly 200 UMOL's of light to the sandbed with the unit sitting right on the tank. If you had the unit 4" above a 24" tall tank you would probably put somewhere in the low to mid 100's to your sand. That is more than enough for what you want to raise. Just keep high light crittters up on the rocks a bit.