MH bulb placement

[tat2d]

Hey guys and girls.
I'm about to mount the sockets in my canopy and I'm assuming that the bulbs should be centered. Four foot long by two feet wide tank, so one foot in from the side and one foot in from the front should be the center of each of the bulbs. Am I Right? The old ones were way closer together, so I figured I'd better ask. Thanks.
Bobby

[Doug1]

Bobby, thats prolly close enough, figure MH typically has an effective 2x2 area. If you imagine or draw a pencil line at the halfway point on you canopy you should have roughly 2x2 squares, imagin an X centering each one and put the midpoint of the bulb there.
Are you mounting front to back or end to end orientation?

[tat2d]

Hey Doug.
I'm mounting them with the bulb ends facing each other and the sockets out, so I'd guess that's end to end. Is front to back any better? I have VHO actinics, so I probably ought to leave it the way it is for better coverage with the blue. Oh yeah, do I need any sort of stand-off blocks, or do I just mount the mogul brackets right to the inside of the canopy? I've never had halides on any of my tanks, can't wait to see 'em on.
Thanks,
Bobby

[wharyat]

I prefer to have the bulb at least 3" away from any flamable materials, just in case.

You can put in a piece of 2x4 or something to mount the bracket too just to get it way from the top of the canopy. Are you also planning on running fans?

Congrats on the MH, you'll absolutely love them.

[tat2d]

Thanks Vince, I'm exited. I've had as much PC and VHO as you can stuff under a canopy, but never had enough to get good growth from SPS corals. So this time I'm doing SPS, clams, a couple of anenomes(only cause I can't get them off the huge chunks of rock they are on), and possibly a LPS or two....still undecided on that so far. Yes, there is a fan about 3 times the size of a computer fan on the back of the canopy. And if that isn't enough, my landlord said I can put a bathroom vent fan in the wall behind the tank It's an acrylic tank and the canopy is 9 inches high inside. So. a couple of inches thick for blocks (7 inches fom the top of the tank)? Is oak okay? Oh yeah, what do I clean the bulbs with?
Thanks everybody.
Bobby