Are Halides worth all the extra dough and heat?

[Dustin]

I have been going back and forth for ages trying to decide wether to go halide, or PC. Both has crossed my mind aswell. My main problem is space, and heat. I have a 7 bow and hate the over the edge of the tank look. If I go halides, I will put the custom hood on a pulley system, and saw up most of the hood, only keeping the bow part. Any one have any experience with MH on bows, or just one that fits it. I would love it if there was a ready to install setup, fans and all, that was about 16 inches long, and 4 or 5 long, height doesnt matter. Thanks a lot.

 

I would love some links to some prefab. hoods.

[wetworx101]

There are many pendants you can use for a minibow. The PFO style are used by many. Hamilton Technologies also started making a low profile line of their reefsun pendants that would work good. Many of these, I wouldn't even put in another hood, just hang above the open top of the tank. This would result in better cooling than many PC hoods as there is much more space and airflow over the open top of the tank...but be careful, as many run auto-top-offs in this configuration to make up the evaporation. So, if mounted properly, MH actually ends up much cooler than PC because PC setups often involve glass tops and poor surface cooling because of the trapped air in between...i think that made sense...

[Dustin]

It made much sense, and thanks a ton for replying. I have a sump, so i dont need an auto top off system for looks, just for proper SG all the time.

[wetworx101]

you got it, sometimes with the top off the SG can flux madly without a topoff on smaller tanks.

[Dustin]

I dont need one yet, but then again i havent checked daily. I really dont mind. I am not going with the whole MH setup unless I can find someone who will sell me one with an actinic bulb for less than 200