Nano Lighting Height/Setup problem

[Texsun]

First off, I would like to say that I am so glad there is a board dedicated to nanos. I've kept my 7.5 gallon nano for almost two years now. Recently, I changed my lighting to two 27w sealights (6700K and 7100K). The fixtures were added to an existing plastic canopy that came with the tank. The fixtures are only 3-4" above the water and are oriented parallel to one another over my cube-shaped tank.

The reason I am posting is that the light from the two different bulbs are not distributed evenly across the tank. The 6700K only illuminates half of the tank while the 7100K illuminates the other with very little overlap. Thus the tank appears blue up front and white in back. I realize I could have purchased 9w/13w fixture, but I wanted to have the sunrise/set effect with the actinic on a separate timer. Basically, I was too stupid to have anticipated this problem

Has anyone had a similar experience and how did you resolve it? Only option I see is raising the canopy, but then that defeats the purpose of using the standard canopy. Otherwise, I guess I could figure out some way to angle each fixture so that they are aimed at each other at an angle. Any other options? Sorry about the long post and your opinions are greatly appreciated. TIA.

[Texsun]

Just to clarify... my nano is cube shaped. The canopy is approx. 12"x12". The two light fixtures are laid out parralel two one another and to the front of the tank. They are approximately 4.5" each across. The problem is that the lighting is so close that the light does not disperse properly. In a correct setup, the actinic and whiter lights blend together. In mine, the actinic and white lights are distinctly separate causing a two-tone effect - blue in front, white in back when looking through the side of the tank. I want to make it so that they blend "naturally", thus my idea to possibly angle the fixtures towards each other so that the light intersects and blends together.

[lakerfan]

i can think of three options, two of them may not be possible in your setup, but here goes
1. place the bulbs closer together in the hood
2. add 2 smaller wattage bulbs 13w? to offset the blueness or whiteness of each side or
3. (the one i think would be easiest to do) change your bulbs to have the same color temp.

[mr9iron]

You may try the csl smartlamps. They are half actinic and half daylight. I would think by placing two of them side by side you could have the asthetically pleasing look you want. HTH:)

[Texsun]

Thanks for the replies.

Lakerfan,

Unfortunately, there is no room to add more bulbs and the fixtures are set right up against one another. The width of the two bulbs combined covers nearly the entire top of the tank and coupled with the relatively low height results in my problem.

mr9iron,

Are the CSL Smartlamps you recommended different from standard CSL lights that came with my Sealights? The only bulb options I know of are 6700K and 7100K. In the end, I'll probably go with all 6700K and lose the effect of the pure actinic bulb :(
Maybe you are referring to the 9w/27w fixture that CSL sells (9w-actinic, 27w 6700K)? Those were my original choice, but I couldn't fit two of them in the hood and I wanted more light than a single combo (36w) would have given me.

[mr9iron]

Texsun, Im refering to the 32 watt csl smartlamps. Im not sure if they are the same as your lights but I guess you could contact the manufacture and find out weather or not these bulbs are interchangable. If you want check my link below and you can see what the light looks like, keep in mind im only running one 32 watt smartlamp. HTH;)

[Texsun]

mr9iron,

Thanks, again, for the info. Do you happen to know how long the fixture is? The canopy on my tank is only 12" long.

[mr9iron]

I think its about 13.5 inches. You may have to get a slightly bigger hood. HTH