175w Metal halide over 20 long questions

[Zack]

I'm building a canopy here in the next few months for a 175w metal halide in a lumenarc mini reflector. About how high off the water should the bulb be to give me good enough spread to not create a spot light effect on the tank? I will be supplementing with my slimline s-12's in the time being until I can get a less bulky way to add some blue into my tank. I'm thinking of building the canopy 8-10'' tall. Any suggestions?

[350gt]

Would you really get a spotlight effect if your supplementing with the LEDs?

I think the spotlight, if any would be minimal and would be good for acclimating new livestock... You could put them on either end..

[Zack]

Yeah that's what I was thinking. Worst case scenario I could set the color of the slimline's to the color of the halide and have them do that. Right now I'm going to be running the slimline's on blue's only. How high do you think would be good to have the canopy be? Online I'm seeing anywhere from 8-12''.

[Zack]

so here's a quick mock up of the canopy. The box on top of the canopy is a rough up of my reflector. It will be supported by two or four 1x2's on it's length and width. The entire front face will be removable with L-brackets on the top and bottom so it'll slide in and out. The back's panel is not as tall as the front one will be to accompany two fans and my external overflow/ return. The slim line's will go on both sides of the reflectors. I may have a shim on both side glued down to angle them inward, and a shim on the opposite side to keep them propped up.

[Zack]

btw, this is not to scale in relation to the lady in the back. Couldn't figure out how to take her out of the image

[Zack]

It will rest on the tank with the three cuts of wood as seen in pictures 3 and 5. Pic one is looking at it from off center to the left. Picture two is a fish eye view of the canopy from below and picture 4 is up and to the left view.

[ErikH]

Give it six inches from the reflector's edge and you should have 0 shadows at any height, end to end.

[Zack]

Just to confirm, 6'' of wood vertically and the depth of the bulb in the reflector plus the reflector itself will be enough. Thanks again Erik

[ErikH]

np, that's what we're here for!

[Scutterborn]

I wanna see you build to the scale with the lady in it!


-Ben-