ATI Question..

Budman's Corals · Jul 18, 2016

I have a 8x54 unit and was wondering if it would run cooler without the splash gaurd, The light is high enough off the water where nothing will hit the bulbs but was curious if anyone has info on this.

TIA

Corey

Salty1962 · Jul 18, 2016

I would not do it, the lights are not designed to be water proof. Moisture, water splash and salt will be a major problem.

cloak · Jul 18, 2016

I think you'll be ok. My MH bulb is about 8" from the water and I have two T5 actinics that are about 4" from the water too. I've never had a bulb break or had any problems with moisture etc. You do need to be careful though.
If your not having any problems with heat with the splash guard on though then it might be best to just leave things the way they are. GL.

vsutarov · Jul 18, 2016

If you take it off you will loose cooling.

stunreefer · Jul 18, 2016

I know several people who do this without much of an issue, but it does negate the fixtures ability to actively cool as mentioned above. For this reason the people I know running shieldless replace bulbs every 6 months.

pga7602 · Jul 18, 2016

Removing the panel makes the cooling fan useless, because air is not being directed away from the bulbs.

monkiboy · Jul 19, 2016

it may, yes. something also to consider is that performance will be more even across the length of the bulbs especially noteworthy on 5' fixtures that have longer bulbs and in my experience have had higher consistent PAR results across the entire fixture. sounds like you have the height for it to ensure you don't have too much, if any, extra maintenance so may be something to consider.

you may want to check out some of the data and information as presented by BRS on the topic in video below (23:35 is when this is discussed):

Budman's Corals · Jul 25, 2016

Thank you all for the response . What I did was add 2 6 inch fans above canopy and now all gear is taken out ...like it works better then I would of imagined.