How high to place mars aqua 165w led lighting for 40g breeder??

trevorspencer94 · Feb 26, 2016

Hi all,

I am planning to swap my 29g biocube to a 40g breeder set up. I am planning on attempting to light it with 1x 165w mars aqua led light, hard to beat the value imo. How high above the tank should I try hanging the light, I really need to get an estimate asap so I can start building the stand and canopy before the tank gets wet. Really just a critical bit of information for the canopy, but it will effect the stand height too bc the visual ratio for stand vs tank vs canopy.

In my head I imagine a total height of 58 inches, sounds possible with a 32 in stand, probably 15 in of the tank showing since bottom tank trim will have wood trim covering it from the stand and top tank trim will have canopy covering it so no black trim is seen, then probably a 10 inch canopy (really only 9 inches above the tank since the bottom inch of the canopy would be covering the black trim).

I'm worried that the 9 inch canopy space, especially once at least 3 inches of that space is taken up from mounting the light inside. So with this plan the light would be 6 inches off the water, I'm really worried that with a 36" tank, and the light only being 6" off the water, the light will not spread to the edges at all.

I'm not too worried about par at the edges of the tank as I can leave the far left and right 6" open and just use aquascaping in the middle 2' for my corals. Just worried the edges will be really dark in comparison.... thanks for reading this far haha, I just wanted to explain the whole situation, my current thoughts, and my worries. Thanks!

AdamNC · Feb 26, 2016

Easy solution to check for spread. Hold the light above the dry tank while on, dim the room lights a little and just look at the spread. Lps and softies can be placed on the sides if you want the most intensity focused in the center.

saltyfilmfolks · Feb 26, 2016

You already have your answer. get the best spread possible(high) and turn that baby up! a 40b should really have 2 of those or one of the 300w. As to get the right height its probably pretty high. I think the lenses come off of those and you may want to pull them for spread. if you have the light already you can see and map the spread on the floor.

trevorspencer94 said:
and the light only being 6" off the water, the light will not spread to the edges at all.

your right it wont at all. see most tanks spotlight effect. Plus those mars are REALLY powerfull

Think about a 12' to 16' canopy(i am) my t5's are fine in the shallow one but to upgrade I need a new canopy.
One thing I do is line the canopy with a mylar tinfoil ar reflective material to catch spread and bounce the light around.

trevorspencer94 · Feb 26, 2016

Thanks for the answers guys! I will definitely just be patient as in all thing tank related and just wait till I have everything in hand and test the height, that's a good tip about taking lenses off maybe, I will check it out! Worst case scenario I guess I don't do a canopy and just hang the lights from the ceiling, just have to patch a couple plant hanger hook holes before I move out haha. Seeing as it's already an issue of spread, I hope there isn't a blinding light from the fixture being completely exposed from across the room as it's going to be in my living space.