I was looking for a place to post this but could'nt find a better place.

I am setting up a new aquaruim and was thinking about hanging my lights from the ceiling. Thing is... I'm sure there are a few things to know before I do this... but what? How high should they be? Is there any benifits or disadvantages to hanging lights? I mean is there anything I should know? I was thinking about doing it just because it will look good. For instance. Should I still put a glass lid on the tank? I see some tanks dont have lids, why is that? So if any one shoud shed some light on the matter I could surely use it.

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Jons4real

http://www.youtube.com/user/jons4real

i have a suspended light over my 210(soon to be rest the tanks once stand is built) I do believe my light on the 210 is 6-8" away from the water surface, I dont use glass tops, i use "Egg crate" better known as the plastic grids over office flourescent lighting.

ONLY disadvantage i personally have with the hanging light is not being able to move it easily when i have to jump in and do a trim.

i dont have tops because they are more trouble then they are worth, they get filthy fast, gotta remove the entire top to do a good cleaning.


Benefits are they are up and out of the way ideally and leaves the top open to do work, most lights are as big as mine so i think my gripe is a 1:1000.

Do you worry about things falling in your tank like bugs and stuff? What about water evaporation? I have an open tank style one and it seemed like I had to add water to it like every week. We also had a wood stove at the time.

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Jons4real

http://www.youtube.com/user/jons4real

I have most of mine in the basement suspended. As for bugs, if any wind up in there, I just scoop them out. You will have more evap issues, but nothing to worry about if you stay on top of your maintenance. Nothing the occassional top-off won't cure.

Now upstairs in the main living area, you can get even more creative like this:


Vanity lights offer some great asthetics.

Yeah, thats the thing, where I'm setting up the tank. I'll only be there about twice a week. I think hanging lights would be so cool though.

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Jons4real

http://www.youtube.com/user/jons4real

Nice set up. I like the lights. I was thinking about hanging mine strait from the ceiling.

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Jons4real

http://www.youtube.com/user/jons4real

My 5' light is hung from the ceiling, they make suspension kits, but they are nothing more then pendant lights.


I had the vanity light bar idea in mind as well for my main display tank but that hasnt been built yet. I do like the aesthetics and the fact that the wife wont complain due to the fixtures matching.