lighting distance

by **fihsboy** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 4:30 am

Okay as most of you guys know I have 300 watts on my 29 gallon tank. Problem is.....there are too close to the water. about 4 inches. How far from the water would you guys put these things? I was thinking about building a new hood to match my new stand....and making the lights a solid 10 inches off the water line. If I put the VHO's that high....I checked today....it would still offer a ton of light and it almost had a little bit of a shimmering affect. Thoughts? 10 inches too much? or not enough? btw thats 10.2 watts per gallon.

by **fihsboy** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 4:33 am

ohh yeah. btw do you guys think running two actnic whites and two actnic blues is okay? Or should I be running a daylight?

by **Snowboss4492** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 12:15 pm

this has nothing to do with your question ....lol........but i found a lighting system a while back {i don't have the link anymore, sorry} it was an LED system and was like 4 grand.................but ...............you hooked it to a computer and then in the software chose the area of the world that your tank was designed to be I.E. carabean, indian ocean etc etc and it would get the actual weather patterns for the area and run your lights like that. in real time ....................it would turn them on and off with sun rise and sunset times, dim them if there was a storm going on...........moon phase would be brighter for full moon and less for new moon........it was crazy

kinda like haveing a completly useless 2 milliondollar super car in the garge but man was it cool ...............lol

Boss

by **fihsboy** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 12:32 pm

haha Is it like the gaileo? I think the Gaileao is like 2 or 3 grand. But its pretty damn amazing. you just have to look at it this way......right now only the elite can afford it.........but in 10 years......they will come down on price, ALOT. haha right now your paying for technology.......then it will be a standard. When I win the lottery....I will buy that light fixture. haha. for now.....ill stick with my little home built hood with my VHO's in it. haha. Hey do you think if I put it a solid 10 inches off the water that would be enough?right now its too much light for some of the softies......and VHO only penetrates a certain depth. I dont know just an idea.

by **dick_headers** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 9:44 pm

I think 10 inches would be perfect. 4 inches pretty close for the wattage you have there+ in the summer it can overheat your tank if you don't have a chiller or fan. Coral also can be burned by too much of light, but I wouldn't worry about that in this case.With 10 inches above you'll still enjoy the whole shimmering effect. I kepp my MH 14" above and still have the whole shim. effect.

by **Snowboss4492** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:22 pm

HOLY SHIT !!!!!! Ladies and Gentlemen ...........the one .............the only .......................................MR. ...............DICK HEADERS !!!!!!!!

lol....long time no see man

by **dick_headers** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 10:59 pm

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LOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!
Good to be back. CHEERS!

by **a1k8t31524** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:09 pm

so i am wondering with that much wattage how do you control alage? i am sure it is different in SW systems but i have a 55gal planted and when i upped my lights.. to 5wpg i had a massive alage explosion........

by **fihsboy** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 11:21 pm

haha. Trust me....its not easy. I have a massive hair algae problem right now......but it happened when my lfs went out of business and the new guy bought it. I had to mix my own water and used tap with prime to dechlorinate.....yeah.....not a good thing. so right now my lights are cut back.....im running two NO lights and two VHO.....so right now im running 190. But im going to up it again as soon as my fish go to my lfs. Im still in the process of building my new stand.....and when I move my tank......the fish are going to the fish shop for good keeping. (if i can catch the lil shits) So im going to blow all my lights on the tank at once and see what happens. I ran it with 300 for about 2 weeks with no problem at all. So hopefully it will be okay. I am trying to down the algae problem that I am having right now......its a pain in the a@#. it was REALLY REALLY bad. now theres just small amounts of brown hair algae here and there. Of course Ive only done one 10 gallon water change......so what do you expect....the nitrates and silica and all that crap is still in the water...so it should be fine......I hope. :)

by **saltwaterpimp** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 1:15 am

lights in most cases wont stop algae growth..just slow it down definatly look at nutrients , if you have great nutrient export algae should never be a problem no mater how much light you have, fishboy do you have a tang, or a foxface ..ect..

whats up headers? ..

lighting distance

10 posts