MH question

[tangman99]

I don't know how high to make the sides of my canopy that will hold my 2 250w MH lights. I will not be using anything between the bulb and water so splash is a concern. I know about 1 1/2 inches of the canopy will cover the sides of the tank and the spyder reflectors will have some space under them for airflow so the bulb will be a few inches from the top of the canopy.

How high should the bulb be minimum from the water? I was planning on cutting the sides to be 12" wide, but I'm wondering if I should make the hood taller now? I want to keep it short as possible to reduce weight.

Thanks.

 

[lemonhead]

the bulbs should be 10-12 inches above the water.

 

[tangman99]

Thanks lemonhead for reading my post:

So with the tank overlap and the space needed for the reflector, would 12 inches be high enough or should I just go ahead and do some extra height? Is their any disadvantage to adding height like light spread our too far, etc?

 

[PiNaPLeX]

if there is too much height between lights and the water, you lose some of the penetration of the light into the water. mounting the lights too far up will reduce the amount of light that reaches the bottom of the tank.