Lighting over acrylic lid

Derrick0580 · Mar 9, 2022

My situation:
I have a 48” 120 gallon rimless planet aquarium. I have 3 radion xr15 blues spaced evenly across the back in the rms mounts. My problem lies in the fact I have a 2 piece Reefin’ Ain’t Eazy acrylic/mesh top. In the direct center of the tank under the middle light there is a strip of clear acrylic instead of the mesh and I know it’s cutting my par on the middle light by a substantial amount. I think I’m going to put that light on a separate tank schedule in mobius and up the percentage. How many percent do you guys think will I need to increase it over the other two to get the par as even as I can?

Yates273 · Mar 9, 2022

I have an poly carbonate lid Over my 120 and I’m losing about 20-30 PAR with it on there. I would say you shouldn’t have to increase too much more. I don’t think your losing as much as you think.

flagg37 · Mar 9, 2022

I think you’re best off getting a par meter if you want to be sure. If it’s not that critical to you then just eye ball it.

I had a couple ap700’s sitting on a piece of 1/2” Starphire glass and it dropped my par by about 20%.

dawi03 · Feb 16, 2023

flagg37 said:
I think you’re best off getting a par meter if you want to be sure. If it’s not that critical to you then just eye ball it.

I had a couple ap700’s sitting on a piece of 1/2” Starphire glass and it dropped my par by about 20%.

sweet i was going to do something similar with my Waterbox Peninsula Mini 15 with an Ai Blade. I have an Acrylic lid though. I am guessing it will be fine does the glass heat the light up at all or is it ok?

flagg37 · Feb 18, 2023

dawi03 said:
sweet i was going to do something similar with my Waterbox Peninsula Mini 15 with an Ai Blade. I have an Acrylic lid though. I am guessing it will be fine does the glass heat the light up at all or is it ok?

It gets pretty hot. Not enough to burn you but probably too hot for acrylic. I put little spacers in between the glass and light to help. If you were to cut a section out where the LEDs are then it might be fine but then you’ll lose structural integrity and have to go thicker with the acrylic.