LIGHT DISTANCE

desert fish

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Good Afternoon, REEF2REEF Community I wanted to ask if there was distance for the lights to be from the edge of the tank in on a red sea 625 g2 tank
 

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Good Afternoon, REEF2REEF Community I wanted to ask if there was distance for the lights to be from the edge of the tank in on a red sea 625 g2 tank
It is going to depend on the lights idea "foot print" (area the light is meant to cover), the particulars of how your tanks is set up (namely if certain structures are casting shadows), and your personal preference.

I think a good starting point for 2 lights is divide your tanks length by 3, and mount your lights that distance from the edge. So if you have a 48" tank mount your light 16" from the edge:

1692303587274.png
 
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desert fish

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It is going to depend on the lights idea "foot print" (area the light is meant to cover), the particulars of how your tanks is set up (namely if certain structures are casting shadows), and your personal preference.

I think a good starting point for 2 lights is divide your tanks length by 3, and mount your lights that distance from the edge. So if you have a 48" tank mount your light 16" from the edge:

1692303587274.png
thank you very much MoshJosh really appreciate the help
 

oreo54

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thank you very much MoshJosh really appreciate the help
Actually to get more even coverage you should spread the 2 lights farther in the middle than the edges .
Say you have a 36" wide tank. Usually you would think to put the 2 centered at 12" from the edge ..so 12...12...12

It is better to increase center distance like say 16"
So 10.....16.....10.
This is the center of each light to the center of the other light

Cuts down on the center hot spot.
 

Hooz

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Actually to get more even coverage you should spread the 2 lights farther in the middle than the edges .
Say you have a 36" wide tank. Usually you would think to put the 2 centered at 12" from the edge ..so 12...12...12

It is better to increase center distance like say 16"
So 10.....16.....10.
This is the center of each light to the center of the other light

Cuts down on the center hot spot.

Yes. If you have the lights mounted at the correct height, they will overlap in the middle of the tank, so there will be a "hotspot". You can even it out a bit by moving them farther away from each other.

A 625 G2 is 60" long, correct? I'd probably recommend a third light for a tank that long. One in the middle and the other two mounted about 16" in from each end as a starting point. I'm not familiar with the Red Sea app controls, but I would also probably run the center light separately so I could adjust the intensity independant of the two end lights. There will be a lot of light overlap in the middle of the tank, so to get smooth, even coverage, you probably wouldn't need to run the middle light's intensity as high as the two ends.

As an example, I run three AI Primes on a 36" long tank. The two end lights run at about 65% of max power, but the middle light only needs to run at 35% max power. All the lights run the same schedule and color settings, so the lighting is uniform and even from end-to-end.
 
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desert fish

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It is going to depend on the lights idea "foot print" (area the light is meant to cover), the particulars of how your tanks is set up (namely if certain structures are casting shadows), and your personal preference.

I think a good starting point for 2 lights is divide your tanks length by 3, and mount your lights that distance from the edge. So if you have a 48" tank mount your light 16" from the edge:

1692303587274.png
thank you this was really helpful
 
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desert fish

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Yes. If you have the lights mounted at the correct height, they will overlap in the middle of the tank, so there will be a "hotspot". You can even it out a bit by moving them farther away from each other.

A 625 G2 is 60" long, correct? I'd probably recommend a third light for a tank that long. One in the middle and the other two mounted about 16" in from each end as a starting point. I'm not familiar with the Red Sea app controls, but I would also probably run the center light separately so I could adjust the intensity independant of the two end lights. There will be a lot of light overlap in the middle of the tank, so to get smooth, even coverage, you probably wouldn't need to run the middle light's intensity as high as the two ends.

As an example, I run three AI Primes on a 36" long tank. The two end lights run at about 65% of max power, but the middle light only needs to run at 35% max power. All the lights run the same schedule and color settings, so the lighting is uniform and even from end-to-end.
thank you very mcuh Hooz I really appreciate the info
 

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