halide system

[shawn lipon]

I just got my hamilton protostar 2-250 hqi 2-actinic t5's fron rick and cmas with all electronic ballasts my halides are 10000 k,, 2-fans,and hammertone reflector. i an thrilled to have a quality light that i was wanting for the last 5 years but only saw in advanced aquaria mags and could only wish for and thought i could never afford.i had seen them (halide/vho/pcs) at top stores in toronto and vancouver.I got what i consider exceptional service and a great deal from rick@cmas and hardly any waiting time . the good thing about dealig with hamilton was they talked to rick as to why i wanted vho when most of their packages were now going out with t-5s.I had never even heard about t-5s before. but i learned the t-5s were more efficient and the new technology had many advantages over my original choice.$$$-output etc. althought i also wanted moon lights rick asked but they are a while from making hamilton built in moonlights.
my question is-- i want to keep my glass top on my mixed sps lps/softy bowfront aquarium to prevent massive evap.right now i have light running with both the glass shield of the light and the glass cover on my tank,light sits on tank. i am scared halides heat will break my tanks glass top if i take out the lights glass shield.reminder i ordered light to have two high cfm fans and hqi bulb is about 5" from tank top glass(hamilton recomendes 6 in).halides are on now only 6 hrs a day but will rise to 8 hrs /day.i have felt the aquarium cover glass and it is hot but not much hotter than with my 220 pc/no fans,i can hold my hand on hot glass without having to pull hand away for pain.i havent tried this without lights glass shield. if i take out the lights glass shield and leave aquarium top glass on with light sitting on tank will i have to worry about coming home to a broken cover glass? my glass cover is ribbed design not flat glass.i have notices that when i run halides light without tank top glass the "ripple effect" in tank is alot greater than with glass top on probly because of ribs. iam new to halides after almost 15yrs running my salt tanks with " Lfs supplied equipment" (- 250 dollar seaclones,200$ double n o lights and 129 dollar pails of salt etc) . although i know and can obliviously see by the health and cleanliness of my tank, my system is now much better and less problematic with cmas's and other high end products and the reef clubs help and advise. i am having trouble finding people with similar problem re lights. what are you other halide users doing in this regard??what advise do you have for me?i know some others (scarygary,tang-joe,rick,addie etc)have sim lights. all advise is hugely appreciated ..tanks for advise!!!!!!:love2:

[Dafishguy]

Hi Shawn,


I'm thrilled you are happy with your new fixture. There is no doubt Hamilton builds exceptional products. I am a firm believer that you get what you pay for.

Anyway, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES can you run your new fixture without the Hamilton supplied glass. This glass has a special UV coating that is required to filter out the harmful UV rays produced by all HQI bulbs. If you are going to remove glass, remove the tank cover. Otherwise your fish and corals will get nasty sunburns and maybe you will as well. It is definately not recommended to run unsheilded bulbs. Standard Mogal base bulbs outer shell is the UV protection so glass covers are not required in their case except to illiminate water splash on bulbs exploding.

Hope this helps.

Enjoy the lights.

Take care

Rick

[shawn lipon]

what if i leave tank cover glass on also? am i filtering too much than?

[Dafishguy]

Nope, both my tanks have glass lens over the fixture and glass covers on the tank. My corals do lovely.

[shawn lipon]

thats great!