Retro Fit Lighting Questions

[jdbassin]

I'm Currently building a hood for my new tank. It will be made of wood, and will stand Approx 12" off the water (Not A Suspended hood), The tank dimentions are 30w x 18d x 24tall, The lighting will be 1 250w xm10k mh and two 55w ac03 pcs Now here's the questions.

1. I've read that the mh need to have a uv filter. Where do I get one?

2. Since the canopy is wood and MH gets very hot what should I use as a standoff between the fixture and the wood? I was thinking of maybe using ceramic. like the plates used to keep pots from burning the table

3. I'm going to install two fans, One blowing in, One blowing out. How many cfm's and what size would be Ideal?

4.Does anyone know of a place online that I could get some for a decent price?

5. Is ac or dc fans better to use? I'm also wanting to be able to make them adjustable speed.

[buckshot1977]

1) i'm not positive on the mh uv thing but i beleave you only need to install uv glass on double ended mh i don't think you ned in for the screw in type. but i'm not positive on that. some one should be able to tell you more.

2) i have a 175w mh on my 29 gallon and it is in a wood canopy and i have not had any trouble yet if you use a reflector and put some smal blocks of wood behind it to make sure that the reflector is about a inch away from the canopy so it can get air in behind it i would think it would be fine.

3) with a canopy that size i would go with 4" computer fans.

4) any computer store will have them and some times you can find old used one for dirt cheap. all you need is a 12 volt power supply. or you can buy a computer power supply for about $20 and you can run at least 4 fans with most of them that way if you find you need more fans it is easy to ad them. and a lot of computer fans have temp sensers for adjustable speeds. most fans are any where from $2 to $20 you can also get them with blue leds in them also and they work kind of like moon lighting to some degree.