Hello,
I am posting this to DIY for lack of a better place jumping out at me on the topics available... I am in process of setting up a new display aquarium, designed principally around the needs of tridacnid clams and an anemone for a couple of percula clowns I have in my current display. The display aquarium is a 90 gallon All-Glass approximately 48” long and 24” deep. What I have read so far leads me towards employing either 1) two metal halide bulbs of 6500K and two actinic fluorescent or VHO bulbs (which I think is what I want to do) or 2) two 10000K metal halide bulbs (of 175 or 250 watt for either intensity I am not yet sure). First question, there are all kinds of recommendations out there for placement of both above the water, but an average of what I have read indicates approximately 3 inches for VHO and 9 inches for metal halide. So how does one reconcile those placements with “all in one” solutions such as this for an example:
http://www.aquadirect.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=808&cat=374&page=1
Now, the DIY bit of this post. I am not particularly interested in diy-ing the electronics, but by necessity I will have to diy the positioning as I am not going to invest in a chiller so that I can put some metal halide lights within the space I currently have available... What do people do/recommend for the placement of Metal Halide lighting? In thinking about this myself (and from examples of people's tanks I see online), I came to the idea of suspending a fixture or two from the ceiling as one would with a chandelier, but this has two problems. First, how to snake the plug/cord from fixture gracefully to electricity since I am going to want to plug it in to the wall socket with some kind of timer coordinated with the remainder of the setup. Second, my wife about hit the roof at the notion of the light fixtures suspended from the ceiling (never mind that is how the chandelier is hung in the middle of the room and this would be on the side). Assuming I can’t get her to see reason on that point, what do I do to house the lights? Constructing a foot tall by four foot structure to house lighting seems clunky, rather lame, and as though it would be uglier on thinking about it. Maybe some kind of metallic swinglamp type structure affixed somehow to the top of the sides of the aquarium??? I just can't come up with any rational way to suspend a light fixture approximately a foot above a fishtank without hanging it from the ceiling (which I believe are 10 foot high, so there would be about five foot of swag chain).
Thanks for any insight.
I am posting this to DIY for lack of a better place jumping out at me on the topics available... I am in process of setting up a new display aquarium, designed principally around the needs of tridacnid clams and an anemone for a couple of percula clowns I have in my current display. The display aquarium is a 90 gallon All-Glass approximately 48” long and 24” deep. What I have read so far leads me towards employing either 1) two metal halide bulbs of 6500K and two actinic fluorescent or VHO bulbs (which I think is what I want to do) or 2) two 10000K metal halide bulbs (of 175 or 250 watt for either intensity I am not yet sure). First question, there are all kinds of recommendations out there for placement of both above the water, but an average of what I have read indicates approximately 3 inches for VHO and 9 inches for metal halide. So how does one reconcile those placements with “all in one” solutions such as this for an example:
http://www.aquadirect.com/store/customer/product.php?productid=808&cat=374&page=1
Now, the DIY bit of this post. I am not particularly interested in diy-ing the electronics, but by necessity I will have to diy the positioning as I am not going to invest in a chiller so that I can put some metal halide lights within the space I currently have available... What do people do/recommend for the placement of Metal Halide lighting? In thinking about this myself (and from examples of people's tanks I see online), I came to the idea of suspending a fixture or two from the ceiling as one would with a chandelier, but this has two problems. First, how to snake the plug/cord from fixture gracefully to electricity since I am going to want to plug it in to the wall socket with some kind of timer coordinated with the remainder of the setup. Second, my wife about hit the roof at the notion of the light fixtures suspended from the ceiling (never mind that is how the chandelier is hung in the middle of the room and this would be on the side). Assuming I can’t get her to see reason on that point, what do I do to house the lights? Constructing a foot tall by four foot structure to house lighting seems clunky, rather lame, and as though it would be uglier on thinking about it. Maybe some kind of metallic swinglamp type structure affixed somehow to the top of the sides of the aquarium??? I just can't come up with any rational way to suspend a light fixture approximately a foot above a fishtank without hanging it from the ceiling (which I believe are 10 foot high, so there would be about five foot of swag chain).
Thanks for any insight.
