Lighting question, for plants and actual placing on the tank

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Franco7

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
May 2, 2005
Messages
119
Location
Mass
I just bought a JEBO 48" 220W(55wx4) Power Compact Light

FEATURES:

Internal electronic Ballast

Highly Polished reflector

Heat Retaining Bands

Full clear arylic lens cover

Two separate ON/OFF switches

Special low heat operation design, no fan is needed.
*
2x 55W 10000K Superdaylight.
*
2x 55W UltraActinic.

1. is that good to grow live plants, to much lighting not enough?

2. can i place the light fixture right on the tank, like if i bought an all glass top cover or do i need to place it off the top cover. My problem is i built my own canopie and i have no place to mount it, so im going to have to lay it right on top, but someone told me that its not good. Whats the opinions of the planters. I figured you guys would be the best to anwser my question about lighting.
 
the ultra actinics are not usable plant lights. you only have 2x55w of usable light at this stage. I would replace the actinics with 2 6500K bulbs (or 6700K...something around that range)

i've put fixtures right on glass tops before...but never one quite that large, only a 1x65 fixture. It could be too heavy, and too hot, possibly cracking the glass. I don't own any Jebo's so I don't know if they sell mounting legs or not (I stick to coralife, or www.ahsupply.com) .

Biggest issue is heat. I don't care what the manufacturer claims, that fixture will build up a ton of heat inside your canopy. I'd put vents or fans in the canopy to remove the heat. These fixtures aren't meant to be inside closed spaces...especially the fanless ones.
 
I keep two 2x96w PC lights directly on top of my tank (although they are not resting on the glass but on the tank edges) and they cause noticeable heating of the water over the course of the day. And mine are fan-cooled so yours may get quite hot. Malkore is right, I would try to find some legs to mount them on or at least some way to keep them out of direct contact with the glass and ventilate them, or you will likely have problems.
 
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