Height for T5's

Ok, im sure this is on here somewhere, but just for the record - i did search a bunch of times and failed to find it...

I am building a hood for a 75 - 8 t5's...430 watts or so.

How high off the water? . . .seems like the general range i have found via google is 3"-5"... I'm leaning towards putting them about 5"

Thanks....

 

mine are about 3" off the water.

 

Doesnt really matter much

 

Mine are about an inch off the water.. no problems with heating whatsoever..

 

Mine are 4-5" off, seems pretty common. You can really put them at any height you want you just won't be able to keep high light coral as low in the tank.

 

My lamps are about 3" from water, I didn't want to go closer as I felt the center braces would block too much light that way.

Remember don't be lazy like me and neglect wiping down your SLRs!! if you keep them clean they will not corrode, get lazy and let salt sit on there for a while and they will look nasty

 

My T5 is about 3" off the tank

 

dude pics nice meeting ya today btw sorry about your bills, LM blew that game

 

I just gotta say something to that.

Too close and you'll be constantly cleaning wet and dried salt creep. So then too close does matter much, right?

Too far and you'll be wasting light. The intensity of light decreases significantly with at least the square of the distance if not the cube. So then too far does matter much, right?

I mean, it's just obvious that it matters a lot. Sorry, I don't mean to be a jerk.

By the way, for whatever it's worth ... I just got up and measured my 'Current' brand light fixture. The bulbs are roughly about 4" off the water and behind a plastic window. The plastic window of the same fixture is about 3" off the water. It seems to be well designed and works well all around.

 

I dont like cleaning them so 8"