question about placing mh over center brace

[reefmonkey]

currently i am running two of the coralife 150w de clamp ons on my 75 but would like to add another mh in the middle...will i run into issues seeing it is going to end up right over the center brace of the tank?
thanks

 

[Leroy]

Why waiste the wattage over the brace when it'll be obstructed by the brace and depending on how old the tank is eventually the heat may cause the brace to crack then you'll really be in deep do-do.

 

[JohnK]

Yea, the shadow can be pretty substantial, and I have also heard of center braces melting or cracking.

That said, I used to run a single 400W MH over the center brace on a 75G, but that was 10-12" up from the brace. The brace never melted or cracked, but the shadow drove me nuts.

 

[reefmonkey]

ok going to hijack my own thread to save space..would it be wise to replace the lights i have now (stated above) for this kit from hello lights?
http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=364

ps thanks for the input so far

 

[JohnK]

Or you could buy that same kit used from me for $100

 

[reefmonkey]

jimmy pm sent

 

[Yaktop]

put a piece of acrylic over it.

 

[JohnK]

put a piece of acrylic over it.

To protect the brace from heat, or did you mean something else?

 

[Yaktop]

just to protect the brace otherwise over time it will become brittle with the MH"s over it.

 

[Joel A]

you could replace the centerbrace too... with something that would suit the light above it better.

 

[Brad S]

I ran a single 250W over my 65, I cut the center brace out, cut some glass and glued that in, worked perfectly.

 

[reefmonkey]

thanks for all of the input....gonna change the lights over to vho gonna go from 300 watts to 440w ...will i still get glitter lines with the vho?

 

[SaltCreep]

thanks for all of the input....gonna change the lights over to vho gonna go from 300 watts to 440w ...will i still get glitter lines with the vho?

You may get some lines with good surface movement....but it wont be the same as MH.

 

[afboundguy]

I'd be hesitant to do a tank with all VHO lights... They are cheap but that's a lot of extra Wattage when you could get better PAR if you went withT5's.

I have 4x54W (216) and I would take a very very educated guess that my kit would have much much better PAR than that VHO kit.

Check out reefgeek.com for their retro kits that have SLR (some of the best) indiv reflectors and they're even on sale and the price includes the bulbs... You could prob fit 6 bulbs on a 75 gallon because the T5 with reflectors are only like 2.5" wide... Good luck either way...

 

[afboundguy]

I just looked at the link for the VHO kit and that price didn't include $100 more for the bulb selection... Def spend the little extra money on a T5 retro from reefgeek. I'm keeping everything in my tank (sps, clams, lps, softies, zoas) and everything is growing great...

 

[reefmonkey]

thank you for the suggestions.....man choices choices...

 

[jbishop]

I would do the cable mod and keep the MH.

 

[afboundguy]

It would be even cheaper on lights at reefgeek now (http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?p=684644#post684644) with a BRS discount...

 

[reefmonkey]

cable mod????

 

[jbishop]

Basically you use a cable and cut the old center brace out. I remember a thread not to long ago. I will try to find it.