Min. canopy clearance for MH?

[luckycat]

I have a canopy on a 90g tank that gives me about 6.5" of clearance between the top of the tank and the top of the canopy. I have been focusing on t5, pc or vho lights, but I want to make sure that I should be ruling out mh due to this limited clearance. True?

 

[tmcpeek]

Seems a bit close to me. I would personally shoot for 8" above top of tank.

 

[luckycat]

Seems a bit close to me. I would personally shoot for 8" above top of tank.

Yeah that wouldn't work...I'll probably wind up with t5, vho or pc.

 

[Phyl]

This is exactly the situation we ended up in. When the MH were put into the canopy by the time you screwed the bulb in we were like 2" over the glass tops, if that (Oceanic tank/canopy). We're in the process of building a new canopy for it. We've purchased all the wood, we just need to get to work on it. We're going like 12" so that we'll have enough room.

There are some hamilton fixtures that are about 6.5 inches, as I recall. Check Captive Reefs.com. We have support beams inside our canopy so the fixture didn't fit in ours.

 

[luckycat]

This is exactly the situation we ended up in. When the MH were put into the canopy by the time you screwed the bulb in we were like 2" over the glass tops, if that (Oceanic tank/canopy). We're in the process of building a new canopy for it. We've purchased all the wood, we just need to get to work on it. We're going like 12" so that we'll have enough room.

There are some hamilton fixtures that are about 6.5 inches, as I recall. Check Captive Reefs.com. We have support beams inside our canopy so the fixture didn't fit in ours.

I have been thinking about adding lifters or something to our existing canopy to raise it up, but have also been thinking that I might be OK with t5 lighting based on what I've been reading.

 

[liquidreamer]

What is it about these canopy manafacturers that don't like to make their stuff tall? I basically have a brand new 4 bulb t-5 setup used 5 weeks just sitting attached to a brand new perfecto canopy (with the glass tops) that I cannot use. I purchased the coralife aqua pro with actinic/150 hqi mh's and that still does not fit under the canopy even after I've removed the t-5s. So, I have over 500.00 sitting on my floor waiting on a good deal on a tall canopy to cover my new setup. The MH's wouldnt fit with the T-5s even though I LOVED the look of them... wish I could still use them some way!