Lighting

[Scooterman]

Nice photos, I see nothing but beautiful corals growing under them lights.
Great work & design! Oh BTW the MH is parallel to the length. It will work fine this way but if you rotated them you would get more light into the tank but you'll have to make your VHO stand-off taller. Hey can you post a few more Picks of your hood, I like the way your top is made, that gives me ideas on the one I'm making, Thanks!

Please No more Jabs ok!

 

[ArloGut]

Thanks everyone, hay I am a rookie carptner.. Here are a few more pics of the hood that is still in progress. Also I plan on using three fans in the back of the hood for cooling.

Arlo

 

[Krish]

Rookie my BUTT!(LOL) You're very skilled man. That's cool you will be running 3 fans. I know someone running 750 watts of lighting and is only using 1 fan in his canopy and the temp stays at 78-79 degrees. He's got huge vents on the side, but still...750 watts is a lot! 3 fans should do wonders! Best of luck man...

 

[Jiddy]

Looks great, where did you get your MH setup from? And im no expert but you may want your fans on the sides, on side to pull in air, and the other to push out the air, so it creates a nice flow area.

and Scooty, what do you mean by, you want your VHO stand-off taller?

 

[Krish]

Here's a photo of the fan that is being used on that 750 watt setup I was talking about

 

[ArloGut]

Jiddy I got the Retro's from a guy on eBay, 2 250W ARO Electronic ballast and 2 110W ARO VHO set-up. Because there isn't much room is why I was thinking of doing the fans in the back.
Krish thanks but this is my first canopy build.. You think this is good you should see the stand LOL

Arlo

 

[ArloGut]

Now that is some light..

 

[Krish]

Krish thanks but this is my first canopy build.. You think this is good you should see the stand LOL

Arlo

LOL...Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

About the fans to the back, they should work fine. If you have one pushing air into the canopy from one side and another on the other end sucking the air out of the canopy, it should work great. You should get good circulation like that IMO.

 

[ArloGut]

Anyone have suggestions on color for the tank and stand? It will going in my basement.

 

[Scooterman]

and Scooty, what do you mean by, you want your VHO stand-off taller?

If you were to rotate the Mh & reflectors 90 degrees you would need to increase the height of the VHO's to clear the curvature of the MH reflectors, putting the MH reflectors this way would get more light directed inside the tank.

Arlo ever seen that paint that looks like a whitish speckled material, almost like a composite type look to it, really cool! With that bead board you could stain it cherry & then seal it with a polyurethane.

 

[wrightme43]

Just so its known. I was not in any way knocking Luke. He is actually a pretty sharp guy, Him and I disagree about some things, but like most of us here we agree on a whole lot more.
I was having a problem understanding the first pic that was posted. I probley was seeing it wrong. It looked to me like the vho were directly under the mh bulbs and the light and heat from the MH would be passing thru the vho tubes.
The real pictures of the setup show that it will work just fine.

 

[liveforphysics]

Worked it out for you.

Aproximate 14% loss for the halides by putting the bulb there. I would say that has an accuracy range around +-4%, if I had exact measurements from you I could get closer, but I dont see the need. This is taking into account a 44% critical angle of reflection for the water surface, and not takeing into account light being wasted on the sides of the tank.

Scooterman is correct, the reflectors (espically those ones) need to be rotated 90deg. That will make a much larger difference in functional lighting than the VHOs blocking a little does.

You will also be dumping aproximately ~45watts heat into each bulb. A 110watt VHO has about 30-35watts heating it from its own running process. This means the bulbs will be running hotter, and bulb life wont be as good, but thats all going to be a function of your cooling, that does mean evap will be higher.

-Luke

DapperDan- Have I ever done something to you to warrent you to make up some negitive BS about me? What is this smoke you are seeing through that appearently Steve doesnt?

 

[Scooterman]

Luke that is some wicked math, I might need you to work that out for me when I get my hood set-up.

 

[loohunter]

once again you cant argue with science

 

[Krish]

once again you cant argue with science

Ya think! That's some crazy *@%# Luke worked out there! Kinda got me scared to buy a retro kit now