How close does my light have to be?

[rafibendahan99]

Hey guys! Currently I have a a Hygger 50w LED light and I wanted it mounted to my ceiling but the hanging wire is only so long. I feel like the light should be closer as it’s 2 feet away right now and the tank is roughly 12-15 in deep factoring in sand. Thoughts?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hey guys! Currently I have a a Hygger 50w LED light and I wanted it mounted to my ceiling but the hanging wire is only so long. I feel like the light should be closer as it’s 2 feet away right now and the tank is roughly 12-15 in deep factoring in sand. Thoughts?

That seems too far above the tank to me. The inverse square law is really important with aquarium lights: if you double the distance, the intensity becomes one-fourth as strong.

The only caveat here would be how focused is the beam? If you lower a focused beam too much, it won't illuminate the sides of the tank well enough. So; a 15 degree beam needs to be really high above the tank, while a 45 degree beam can be much lower down and still light up the whole tank.

 

[Spare time]

A 50w light without some sort of means to focus it definitely needs to be closer.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

a 50 watts light is not very strong, I would put the light at about 8"-10" from the water for maximum effectiveness, I think you lose of lot of light with it that high

 

[jsreefer]

Hey guys! Currently I have a a Hygger 50w LED light and I wanted it mounted to my ceiling but the hanging wire is only so long. I feel like the light should be closer as it’s 2 feet away right now and the tank is roughly 12-15 in deep factoring in sand. Thoughts?

I would see if you can get your hands on a par meter also the higher up the bigger the spread but at some point you will lose where you can’t adjust strength to maintain a certain par level because the light is at 100% and can’t penetrate any deeper that why t5s aren’t good alone and there better when supplemental lighting is being done or shallow tanks with t5s really close to water level to maximize par because the fluorescent bulbs don’t penetrate anywhere near what leds do also when using the par meter you want to have a even par across the whole tank unless your trying to have it more intense in one area more than another area hope this helps par levels seem to help me a lot because if I know what my light levels are in certain areas and something isn’t doing well but in theory the light thats being given is substantial I tend to look for another cause instead of light being the issue

 

[jsreefer]

Hey guys! Currently I have a a Hygger 50w LED light and I wanted it mounted to my ceiling but the hanging wire is only so long. I feel like the light should be closer as it’s 2 feet away right now and the tank is roughly 12-15 in deep factoring in sand. Thoughts?

A lfs by me used to rent par meters out maybe there’s one near you that may let you borrow there’s or rent it unless you buy one

 

[rafibendahan99]

Thanks for all you help! I moved the light closer down and my coral all seem happy :)

 

[BryanM]

Thanks for all you help! I moved the light closer down and my coral all seem happy :)

Nice! I was going to say the same as others, glad its working better closer :)