Marineland LED's over "open" water

[Henry405]

I just recently got the Marineland Single Bright LED's for dirt cheap, but I notice that it isn't recommended over open water. The LED's are going over my 36g bowfront and I don't want to spend more money to buy a new glass cover over the tank.

Has anyone have any kind of experience leaving them over open water?

 

[HUKIT]

I don't have any LED fixtures but all my different T5HO say the same thing, which of course I don't follow since the majority of my tanks are topless and I've never had a problem even with direct splashes.

 

[mfdrookie516]

Same here... no LED's, but 7 T5HO fixtures over tanks with no top on them... a splash occasionally, but never any problems. They put that for liability reasons. You can't sue them if it falls in because they specifically warn not to. It's just like the 'caution: hot' message on mcdonalds coffee

 

[slitherbomb]

With t5hos and metal halides and the such, a splash of water can explode the bulb because of the dramatic difference in temperatures. I don't think this can happen with LEDs.