canopy/pendant help

[Belallanon]

I was planning on hanging a 24" 175W MH 2x55W PC Hamilton hood over my AGA 29g like a pendant. After doing some reading in the forums, it seems that this might spill more light into my living room than I'd like so I'm now considering a canopy. How tall should a canopy for this type of MH/PC setup be? How far should the lights be from the water? I plan on keeping clams, LPS, SPS. If I use a canopy, how can I acclimate my coral/fish from the old tank? Should I still get the Hamilton hood and hang it in the canopy or get a retro kit? I'd like the canopy to be open in the back to accommodate my HOB equipment. Doors in the front would be nice also. Anyone know of some good plans with pictures (I'm not a woodworking expert)? Ahhh, so many questions. Any help appreciated. Thanks much.

Randy

[Aaron1100us]

I'm running a 400 mh pendant over my 29 and there is some light going into my living room but it isn't too bad. IMO, if you go with a canopy, you'll have some pretty big heat issues unless you have alot of loud fans running. I had heat issues on my 29 when I was running 120w of PC with a canopy. All I have with my 400w mh is one 6 inch fan blowing across the water and the temp stays at 78-80. I suppose you could build a canopy and have several large fans in it. You'll have more evaporation with that also. I only loose a 1/2 to 1 gallon a day.

[electric130]

Originally posted by Belallanon
I was planning on hanging a 24" 175W MH 2x55W PC Hamilton hood over my AGA 29g like a pendant. After doing some reading in the forums, it seems that this might spill more light into my living room than I'd like so I'm now considering a canopy. How tall should a canopy for this type of MH/PC setup be? How far should the lights be from the water? I plan on keeping clams, LPS, SPS. If I use a canopy, how can I acclimate my coral/fish from the old tank? Should I still get the Hamilton hood and hang it in the canopy or get a retro kit? I'd like the canopy to be open in the back to accommodate my HOB equipment. Doors in the front would be nice also. Anyone know of some good plans with pictures (I'm not a woodworking expert)? Ahhh, so many questions. Any help appreciated. Thanks much.

Randy

build/get a canopy that will allow the bulb to be about 12" off the water and is sealed. that will give you plenty of room to work in the tank without burning yourself too. cut holes and install 2 fans in the back of the canopy, both blowing in. in the top of the canopy, cut vent holes so the hot air can escape. just make sure that the total area of the vent holes is slightly larger than the total area of the fan holes. this is what i do with my canopy and i'm running 600w MH and 320w fluorescent lighting in a sealed canopy and i don't have any heat issues. also, you can get fans that aren't that loud. i don't even notice my fans running unless i listen for them and i have 3-4" fans. i hate pendants for the exact reason you stated, you have too much light spillover into the room. the front of my canopy flips up. it rest on the top of the canopy. this way, there's nothing interfering with you getting into the tank. also, there's no wood in the way that will get wet when you bring your hand/arm out of the tank dripping with water.