Lighting suggestions for me?

I have a cooling fan in my canopy off to the side of my 150w and it keeps the light cool to the touch. A small fan goes a long way. And they really don't use a lot of power. Not much different than having a 150w heater running IMO.

 

Get out your check book!

Aquarium Specialty

Elite Reef is running these on a couple of displays. They are amazing lights that come ready to be upgraded with additional lighting units or even coupled to a second fixture.

 

Who still uses checks?? haha

 

I was just looking at those too. But I wonoder if they would work on the Neo Nano. The back wall on that tank is so high. How close to the water do the lights need to be? The light they have on their tank in the pic looks really high!
Neo Nano | Deep Sea Aquatics Custom Aquariums

 

I forgot about that troublesome wall. Matt set up one of these tanks and had to work around the same things. Here's a link to his thread:

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/matt-rogers-neo-nano-aquarium-84665.html

The Ecoxotics that I've seen so far are actually mounted to the cabinet and the mounting hardware is fully adjustable up and down. With that mounting hardware the lowest you would be able to get the lights is right at the top of the back wall. You could hang one if you don't mind some holes in your ceiling.

 

I run the viper K-2 150W 14,000k bulb on my tank. (46g) I run it about 10 " above the waters surface and it makes the whole take shimmer and shine. Very nice fixture. It doesnt heat my water up that bad, bout 1degree for running a whole 8-10 hours. My T5's actually heat up the tank water more when I use them on the tank 2-3Degrees.

 

Actually, since I don't know....how high do lights need to be above the water?

I emailed that company about their LEDs but I think you are right, they probably wont work with that tank. Over the long run, they would sure save on money! I was just looking at how many hours they last compared to MH.


Maybe someone will invent clip on LEDs really soon.



RedGambit, do you have to run a fan with yours? What if you wanted to add moonlights? Would you have to use a second clip on?



P.S. Thank you everyone for answering my newbish questions!

 

You can actually have them pretty high without much change in lighting. Light will penetrate the air without nearly as much fall off as you will see in the first inch of water. The only reason I like my lights to sit at a more common height is just for looks.

They would save a massive amount in the long run. The running life of LED's is barely even comparable to that of MH. I think it's reasonable to assume that LED's purchased now will last until technology makes you want to upgrade them!

 

Do you think if I got those and they were at the top of that tank, the would work okay? Or would they be too high?

Here's the tank pic again:
Neo Nano | Deep Sea Aquatics Custom Aquariums

I dont mind spending the money now, as long as the light would still be okay for clams and corals once I am ready for them. I also wonder if these have that moonlight feature or not.

 

I think it would work very well for you. It looks like the wall is about 10" tall from the water surface which isn't much more than a lot of MH lights end up hanging over people's tanks.

They do have built in moonlights and they also have an optional upgrade that is supposed to give corals un-believable "pop". It just plugs right in to the fixture and clips in to look stock. I haven't seen what they do for colors yet, but they look pretty sweet.