Lighting Question

nemogonecrazy

Non-member
Can i use the regular glass tank tops they sell to put in between the water surface and my DE halide bulbs without damaging the tank or inhabitants?

I plan on building a DIY hood using a pair of old coralife 150watt DE pendants that i have laying around. Unfortunately I do not have the small glass shields that came with the pendants. I have ordered all new sockets however i cannot locate replacement shields. Thanks in advance.
 
Any glass shop should be able to make you replacement lenses out of tempered glass (or rather cut then temper the glass).

The glass needs to be tempered to have the UV filtering qualities that is required with DE lamps. If the tank covers are tempered (?) then they would protect the tank inhabitants but it would still pose a potential danger to humans near the lights but not protected by the glass covers.

Also it can be very hard to keep a tank in a reasonable temp range with MH lighting AND the lack of evaporative cooling that comes with glass covers.
 
John thank you for your reply. Another question in regards to the safty to humans I think I might be ok the tank is an in wall set up I attached a photo so you can see thoughts on that? Also rather than a full cover what do you think of a strip maybe half the width of the tank that would be placed under the lights to supply the UV and splash protection and have the heat controlled throw the open water the maybe some transfer thru the sump?
 

Attachments

  • image.jpg
    image.jpg
    76.4 KB · Views: 172
That would mean spending more to get something that might work, and would definately be in the way.

I don’t know exactly the risk with human exposere to that UV but I wouldnt want to wait 20 yrs to develop cancer or not.

I would absolutely do this the right way first :)
 
You could always have the glass shop cut you new ones to the size of the reflectors.
 
You could always have the glass shop cut you new ones to the size of the reflectors.

Exactly. Figure out the measurements and call a few local glass shops and ask around.

IME with this sort of thing you may get wildly varying responses ranging from "no way" to "yup, no problem" (with a price that seems a bit steep, but in the big picture gets the job done right and isn't really that excessive).
 
I’m thinking I am going to grab a 48” four bulb fixture from Home Depot and gut it for the housing then retro in four t5 and the two de halides. Will look into a glass company for the shields. Kind of make an odessea style fixture. I have the ballast needed for the t5 just need to grab a few end caps and bulbs and should be good to go. I will post photos of the build if that is the final result.
 
I have gathered all of the needed supplies for my light build except for the actual housing. But before i purchased i thought that i would reach out to the community prior and see if any members has an old fixture (48") that they are looking to unload. the fixture itself does not need to work as i would be simply using the fixture to house the new components.
 
Upcoming Events

April 21, 2024
Paul B
Club Meeting

Back
Top