Do I keep the glass cover?

[kashi410]

Hey Ya'll,
I just bought my MH retrofit setup for my 92 gallon bow front corner tank. I was wondering if I am suppose to still use the large pice of glass covering that goes in between the MH bulb and the top of the water in my tank. Let me know please.

[musicsmaker]

The general consensus is that you do not place glass between the water and the bulb. The companies that say that you absolutely do not use their bulb over open water are probably just covering their butts. I would. If water splashes up onto a hot MH bulb the bulb will likely shatter. Be sure to keep it high enough off of the water that this does not happen. HTH

[moze229]

Chuck the glass. :) I had the same concern a while back and I've been without ever since. It tends to work better, allowing for better evaporation and more of a natural effect. Unless you like cleaning the glass cover everyday to remove salt creep and whatever else grows on there. I do understand your concern though. MH will not take water at all, not even a drop. You can go pretty high above the water with MH and not loose much light dispersion. A glass cover, even a clear one, could block some of the light. As someone stated before, "you don't see a glass cover over the ocean do you?" :D

[Waterbury Guy]

"MH will not take water at all, not even a drop. You can go pretty high above the water with MH and not loose much light dispersion.
What about PC? I'm about to moutn mine in a canopy and ithink they will be about 5 Inches above the H20.

[musicsmaker]

Watter splashing is not that big of a concern with PC. 5 inches sounds good to me.

[Eric Boerner]

PC's don't get very hot. You can have them dip into the tank and it wouldn't be a problem. I have had PC's as close as 2" from the surface. They get tons of salt creep though, so you'd need to clean them often.

Metal Halides are nothing to mess with though. A single drop of water will most likely cause the halide to explode. Keep them pretty high up. The min. distance in a tank with very little air bubble pops at the surface should be 6". I'd go in the 8" to 10" range though.

My current set up is 4" for 4 PC's and 8" for my Halide.