Extreme lighting for a 20 gal.

Hello everybody.

I am currently "remodeling" my 20 gallon (well its my girlfriends but im doing all the work ;D). Finished the sump/fuge last night and will be setting everything up either tonight or tomorrow night. On one of my daily visits to 3reef i saw jonathan's very nice setup

What i was wondering is. I have some MH that i am not using right now. There brand new, never been used, we originally bought them for a tank that i dont have anymore. But they are 250 Watts 10 000K. Could i risk hanging them over a 20 gallon tank? if so how high should they be? And what about actinic, right now i have some retro PC's on the tank. I could replace my PC bulbs for only actinics but how can i set those up to have an open top tank like in the above picture.

Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

Thanks

Marc.

 

If you wanted to use one of them, I would put it about 15 - 20" above the water line. Put it in a canopy with long sides so the light does not spill out all over the place and light up the rest of the house
You'll probably need some fans to handle the heat build up, other than that, have fun. You'll be ready for an sps tank in no time

Jim

 

I wasnt planing on using both trust me ;D. Thats my dilema, the light spill in the kitchen. Ive lite them up just to check how bright they were and man are they bright. But theres no way my girlfriend will let me make a canopy 20+" high.

Marc

 

well...i dont know why nobody does this...could be a good reason...but you could make a metel casing with fans in it to stop the light spill

 

My MH is a retro fit kit with a huge bat wing reflector. so i will defenetaly be making some kind of housing for it. Im pretty sure if i put it high enough it should be ok for my livestock and heat. But the light spill... planes are gonna land in my kitchen if i dont get it under control. Ill try to come up with something and keep you all posted...

Thanks

Marc.

 

I used a black backdrop on the wall behind my halide on my 30 long. It worked well to cut down light. FYI.

 

Thanks Matt. You can try to convince my girlfreind to do something like that in HER kitchen if you want to. But im not even gonna try to ge there...

Thanks

Marc

 

good call marc .....i'd rather have the sun in my kitchen
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heh. Understood. ;D

 

In case you didnt know acenia here is my girlfriend. ;D

Marc.