Canopy lighting question

[992gnt]

This is really a question about spread and mounting height. Tank is 48x18x19, with a wooden canopy, but the distance from the water to the bottom of the canopy is only 6⅝". Currently I have three AI Prime 16 HD's mounted in the canopy, but even with diffusers there just isn't enough spread - they look light street lights on a foggy night. The tank is a mixed reef, with the rock work roughly half the height of the display.

So with that mounting height, what lighting would give me a more balanced spread of light. Larger fixtures? Supplemental strip lights? Or a single puck like the Prime but with a wider angle lense? I have lighting fatigue looking at all the options available, and don't want to end up buying twice. Thanks!

 

[Eagle_Steve]

This is really a question about spread and mounting height. Tank is 48x18x19, with a wooden canopy, but the distance from the water to the bottom of the canopy is only 6⅝". Currently I have three AI Prime 16 HD's mounted in the canopy, but even with diffusers there just isn't enough spread - they look light street lights on a foggy night. The tank is a mixed reef, with the rock work roughly half the height of the display.

So with that mounting height, what lighting would give me a more balanced spread of light. Larger fixtures? Supplemental strip lights? Or a single puck like the Prime but with a wider angle lense? I have lighting fatigue looking at all the options available, and don't want to end up buying twice. Thanks!

Just to clarify, only 6 5/8” from light mounting point to water? So a 2” thick light would be 4 5/8” from water?

 

[992gnt]

Correct.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Correct.

That’s tough with led, even bars.

Only thing that comes to mind is t5 to get an even spread.

Do you have the ability/option to modify the canopy? Like if the top has trim that sticks above the actual “bottom” to where you could raise the “bottom” up?

 

[992gnt]

The canopy only sits "over" the tank by about an inch, so not much room to work with there. The only option to modify the canopy would be to build a new one, which isn't something I'm ready to embark on at this point.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

The canopy only sits "over" the tank by about an inch, so not much room to work with there. The only option to modify the canopy would be to build a new one, which isn't something I'm ready to embark on at this point.

Dang. Only thing I can think of that isn’t going to disco or spot light would be T5 or maybe something like the coral care or sky led by Neptune. If the tank is not high light coral heavy, some strips like the current orbit strips or similar would work for a blanket of light.

Hopefully others chime in, as I am stumped outside of the above lol.

 

[992gnt]

I don't have any experience with T5’s, so I'll have to look into those. I have a few pieces of SPS, but mostly LPS. Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

I don't have any experience with T5’s, so I'll have to look into those. I have a few pieces of SPS, but mostly LPS. Thanks for the feedback.

T5 will grow everything. You can change appearance of tank with different bulb combos and nice even blanket of light. They do produce heat and in a canopy will generate quite a bit of heat if it is not vented. So head up on that. ATI has a good breakdown on their website about what bulb combos give what look, so you can take a look at that, if you decide to look into T5s.

 

[992gnt]

After much research, I felt like mounting T5's at that height would have cooked everything in the tank. So I ended up going with a pair of Radion XR15 Pro's. Great spread, no disco effect, and my corals seem to have really responded to them as well. I had to make some custom aluminum flat bar mounts to get them as high as possible, and I'm running them at 50% power. So far I'm happy with them.