Phillips coral care g2's setup.

[catfan73]

Finally made a housing for my lights, just wondering if i should cut the legs abit shorter. Currently theyre 15 inches of the surface of the water.
The tanks pretty deep as it is and im wondering if 15 inches would be too high. Im going to be adding accrylic on hinges around the housing and will still need room to access the tank so cant have them very low.

Dont have a par reader and still messing with settings to figure out what im going to do. Any help or advice would be appreciated.
there is 2 coral cares and 2 a360x kessils.

 

[oreo54]

Finally made a housing for my lights, just wondering if i should cut the legs abit shorter. Currently theyre 15 inches of the surface of the water.
The tanks pretty deep as it is and im wondering if 15 inches would be too high. Im going to be adding accrylic on hinges around the housing and will still need room to access the tank so cant have them very low.

Dont have a par reader and still messing with settings to figure out what im going to do. Any help or advice would be appreciated.
there is 2 coral cares and 2 a360x kessils.

Well you sort of are answering your own question when you say they can't be too low.
Anyways what are the tank dimensions?
From the bright strip of light on the back wall it looks like you could go down a bit.

Depends on how many photons you want in the room vs the tank..

The fixture should be suspended at least 15 cm/5.91” above the surface of the water in the tank. The best optical light distribution is achieved (depending on tank size) at a height of between 15 cm/5.91” and 35 cm/13.78”.

 

[catfan73]

Well you sort of are answering your own question when you say they can't be too low.
Anyways what are the tank dimensions?
From the bright strip of light on the back wall it looks like you could go down a bit.

Depends on how many photons you want in the room vs the tank..

• Dimensions: 1500 (L) x 700 (W) x 800 (H).

I will be putting black acrylic around all the sides of the box in the next few days. But will need to see if im cutting it shorter before hand because ill need to cut the accrylic too.

Will the acrylic direct the light down more?

 

[oreo54]

• Dimensions: 1500 (L) x 700 (W) x 800 (H).

I will be putting black acrylic around all the sides of the box in the next few days. But will need to see if im cutting it shorter before hand because ill need to cut the accrylic too.

Will the acrylic direct the light down more?

So 27.6" wide, 31.5" deep?
No black acrylic will probably reflect very little light.
Coral care is 16.4" wide. Subtract about 3" to get panel size.
reported panel size is 11" for the width.
Their optic path is err complicated so I can only take a shot in the dark at this.

LED lights | Best LED lighting for indoors & outdoors | Philips lighting

LED lights are energy-efficient, long-lasting, and environmentally-friendly light sources that adapt to each of your home spaces.

www.usa.lighting.philips.com

BEST way is to put the light over a large white surface and raise it till the brightest part fits the 26.7" wide dimension.
Ignore l and right for a moment.

Best GUESS would be about 10-12" from the light front face to the water surface.

You can get some idea about par from this uncharacteristically confusing review:

Product Review: Philips’ CoralCare Gen 2 LED Luminaire

It has been almost 15 years since PFO offered the first commercially available LED luminaire for the aquarium market. These were wildly controversial at that ti

reefs.com

Best I can say is if you want high par at the bottom go as low as you can.
Keep in mind this is just 1 light.

When the luminaire is suspended at 6 inches above the water level and at full power, it provides enough light to a depth of at least 19 inches that can support the most light-loving corals (those that do best at PPFD of about 200 µmol∙m²∙sec. Of course, many corals thrive at light intensity of about 100 µmol∙m²∙sec.)

Just thought of a fairly simple way to judge your amount of height decrease.
Ok if you take a white board put it parallel to the water surface you know like a dinner tray, flat. Measure from the tank to where it looks like the light gets noticeably dimmer.
Draw a line left/right. Now measure that distance from the edge to your line.

take a ruler/stick whatever and put it from the light face out to the distance you first calculated.
Really badly drawn angular line.
Now take a ruler from the tank edge perpendicular to the water surface UP to the intersection of the angled board/whatever Put zero on the tank lip and read where it intersects the angled board.
That will be the amount of inches you can drop the light to just fill the water surface.
Modify that height to taste.
Sort of like this..
The blue line distance is what you can cut off your current legs.
Side view, light centered.

Hardest part is of course deciding where your brightness ends.

 

[catfan73]

So 27.6" wide, 31.5" deep?
No black acrylic will probably reflect very little light.
Coral care is 16.4" wide. Subtract about 3" to get panel size.
reported panel size is 11" for the width.
Their optic path is err complicated so I can only take a shot in the dark at this.

LED lights | Best LED lighting for indoors & outdoors | Philips lighting

LED lights are energy-efficient, long-lasting, and environmentally-friendly light sources that adapt to each of your home spaces.

www.usa.lighting.philips.com

BEST way is to put the light over a large white surface and raise it till the brightest part fits the 26.7" wide dimension.
Ignore l and right for a moment.

Best GUESS would be about 10-12" from the light front face to the water surface.

You can get some idea about par from this uncharacteristically confusing review:

Product Review: Philips’ CoralCare Gen 2 LED Luminaire

It has been almost 15 years since PFO offered the first commercially available LED luminaire for the aquarium market. These were wildly controversial at that ti

reefs.com

Best I can say is if you want high par at the bottom go as low as you can.
Keep in mind this is just 1 light.



Just thought of a fairly simple way to judge your amount of height decrease.
Ok if you take a white board put it parallel to the water surface you know like a dinner tray, flat. Measure from the tank to where it looks like the light gets noticeably dimmer.
Draw a line left/right. Now measure that distance from the edge to your line.

take a ruler/stick whatever and put it from the light face out to the distance you first calculated.
Really badly drawn angular line.
Now take a ruler from the tank edge perpendicular to the water surface UP to the intersection of the angled board/whatever Put zero on the tank lip and read where it intersects the angled board.
That will be the amount of inches you can drop the light to just fill the water surface.
Modify that height to taste.
Sort of like this..
The blue line distance is what you can cut off your current legs.
Side view, light centered.

Hardest part is of course deciding where your brightness ends.

Thanks for the detailed reply. Ive tried to replicate what youve said and decided i will take about 4-5 inches off the legs which should make it just about right.

 

[mfinn]

My coralcare fixtures are 9" from the water.
I run them at about 65%.
I also have a pair of reef brite xho's