Well... That's Potentially Problematic.

[EmilyXLC]

Well, I decided to clean up the tank & (have the husband) bring it in after I got home from the meetup. Tank envy hit me hard, LOL! After I set the rock that JSB hooked me up with today, I decided to set my light up as well... I just realized that, because there's the support brace in the middle, my light sets off center... This means that it doesn't distribute light evenly, correct?

If so... What should I do? : (





Here are pictures for reference!

 

[scooterc268]

You could always put your light demanding coral on the light side and for the other side put your low light demanding corals.

Or get another fixture that you can hang above the tank. Seeing that its a bowfront, I wouldn't advise taking/cutting out the center brace. That would be a disaster is the wait.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using Tapatalk 2

 

[EmilyXLC]

Unfortunately, buying another light is out of the question for a while. : /

 

[JSB]

You could pull the light off the bracket and suspend it or mount in a canopy. You might even be able to find a cantilever arm to use to center and/or angle it. Obviously, you can't cut the brace. A center brace in a tank like that begs for linear (T5, or LED strips) lighting, or multiple units (one left, one right). Maybe you can do SPS on the right, LPS center, and nps on the right. You have all kinds of options. Think of it as an opportunity.

 

[EmilyXLC]

You could pull the light off the bracket and suspend it or mount in a canopy. You might even be able to find a cantilever arm to use to center and/or angle it. Obviously, you can't cut the brace. A center brace in a tank like that begs for linear (T5, or LED strips) lighting, or multiple units (one left, one right). Maybe you can do SPS on the right, LPS center, and nps on the right. You have all kinds of options. Think of it as an opportunity.

I think that's what I'm going to have to do for a while... I can eventually re-sell the light & upgrade to a something linear, which is probably what I will do for my Christmas present to myself!

 

[TrishW]

Nice! I saw your rock sitting outside when we were leaving. I think you will have plenty of time to worry about your light placement later. Reefing has to be one of the world's slowest hobbies, lol. It seems to go so slow at first but it sure is neat to look back at photos and realize just how much things have changed. With my tank it is such a gradual change that I don't fully appreciate it until I look at old pics.

 

[EmilyXLC]

Yes, TrishW! That IS comforting when I think about it. It's just so easy to get discouraged, though. But I will triumph!

BTW, your daughter is the most precious child EVER. I enjoyed talking to you guys today!

 

[TrishW]

Thanks Emily. She is definitely a talker and I have no idea where she gets it, lol. On the ride home she made several comments about how nice you were and how much she enjoyed talking to you. There were also comments on your pie and cupcakes. I didn't try the cupcakes but the key lime pie was amazing.

 

[EmilyXLC]

Well if you ever need to replicate them, I will happily give you the recipe for any of it! : )

 

[kschweer]

What size bowfront tank is that?

 

[EmilyXLC]

It's a 46. : )

 

[kschweer]

Very nice. I have the same sized tank and I love it. Best of luck with it.

 

[markkazdad]

Well, the thoughts that came to my mind (after putting a matching light on the other side) were:

1) Could you mount the light on one of the sides and have it reach to the center? Probably will still look unbalanced.

2) Could you attach a black-painted piece of wood to the back rim somehow and then attach the light to that? (Method of attachment left to the wisdom of the forum. I can assemble bits and bytes, not construction materials, and I would hate to be responsible for your light falling into the tank.)

3) The cross-brace is a perfect place to mount a Scuba Steve or Lego Navy Diver Minifig.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Your tank looks nice. I am glad that you got your tank set up right away. The NARC meeting must have gotten you very inspired.

As Trish pointed out, you have still some time to think about your lighting. After filling your tank with rocks and livestock, you may not find the difference in the light level from left to right annoying. You can mount corals on either side depending on their light requirements.

On the other hand, a lot of people are switching their lighting from MH to LED and vice versa right now. You might be able to find a real bargain on this forum or the other ones like RC. You might find another identical 150W fixture on the cheap...

 

[EmilyXLC]

markkazdad - Your #3 gave me the giggles! I think we are just going to leave it be & just place the corals accordingly.

Tomoko - Thank you so much! Yes, the meet up really got me excited. I was just going to wait to move the tank inside when my RO stuff got here, but I got antsy after all the reef talk on Saturday! I'm going to keep a lookout for any lights that are just ridiculously low priced, though! Thanks for the heads up! : )

 

[shovelrider]

Mount the light to a 1/4'' or 1/8'' peice of wood behind the tank. Make legs for the light stand and counter balance or nail/screw the wood to the stand. There are a lot of ways to get that light in the center and looking good on the cheap.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Centering the MH lamp above the tank has a potential problem of the center brace aging prematurely due to the high heat from the MH bulb. The center brace can block some of the light as well.

 

[dictionaaron]

i had the same issue with a 45, i solved it by cutting a piece of 3/8 acrylic 1.5 inches wide and almost the width of the tank. then i cut out the brace leaving an inch or so on each side. I set the acryclic on top of the two remaining tabs and drilled through on both sides. put some plastic bolts through there and bam its see through.

obviously this doesnt fix the off center issue but it does lessen the impact by removign the brace. just my 2 cents