Lighting around the brace

[coralosity351]

My 125 has the obvious middle brace how much of an impact does that have on light spread. The plan is 3 black boxes with one right in the middle. But wont the brace have a big impact being in the way?

 

[scardall]

IMO,Yes it will have shadows. Using 2 fixtures length ways that span the opening that way could work. or 2 X 2 front to back could work as well.

 

[AndrewNC]

You could scape it in a way where the shadows wouldn't be very noticeable. My old tank with T5s wasn't noticeable but I heard with LEDs it causes a light shadow. Cutting the brace would of course void any warranty but I cut the middle brace and euro braced the whole tank with a glass brace going front to back also

 

[coralosity351]

This would have 1 over each opening and one right over the middle

 

[mcarroll]

My 125 has the obvious middle brace how much of an impact does that have on light spread. The plan is 3 black boxes with one right in the middle. But wont the brace have a big impact being in the way?

Black boxes have a very hot, hot spot in the middle and poor intensity to the sides – they don't typically cover much space very well as a result.

I agree with whoever said you can always aquascape in a way to make it matter less.

I would take the other possible track and use 2 or 3 more fixtures to improve coverage. (All fixtures will be able to run at a lower power and probably last longer too.)

Just a thought!