how far from the water do VHOs need to be?

rihanssu · 05-23-2006, 05:07 PM

i'm putting 4 VHOs plus a 150 MH on my new 75, how far from the tank MAX can i go with the VHOs?

-matt egan

David Grigor · 05-23-2006, 05:12 PM

You really want to mount them as close to the water as possible yet far enough away not to get salt spray buildup. About 3" is a comfortable distance. IME: You really don't want to go any further than that unless it is just not possible with your setup. Every inch further from the water the light intensity gets less and less. No sense wasting usable light.

There really is no max but there is a trade off...

Typically on a MH setup the VHOs goes in the front and back of the MH, height of the MH being higher than the VHOs. . On a 90g I have put 3 VHOs along with MH 4 might be a tight fit without interfering with the MH light dispersion.

Alero · 05-23-2006, 08:14 PM

I have my 6 VHO's on my 90g about 2-3 inches from the water. I get minimal salt build up and haven't had any problems since setting up in Nov. 2005.