400W Sunburst Bulb Over Center Brace???

[NaH2Ofreak]

I currently have a 100gal Tenecor tank. I have two 175W 10K bulbs over each of the two openings. I recently aquired a 400W ballast and would love to run it in the center between the two 175's. Do you think the heat/uv/etc would damage the center brace? The lamp would be about 8"-9" above it. Thanks!

Dennis

 

[Bryan]

400 watt bulbs get very hot, especially the Iwasaki's. I would try a fan blowing across the center brace or mount a 12 x 12 square sheet of glass above the center brace to act as a heat shield.

-=Bryan=-

 

[Gatortailale1]

Is your tank glass or acrylic? If acrylic check out the john rice site and read about how he cracked the center brace on his 400 gal acrylic tank by not having a fan on the center brace.
http://www.globaldialog.com/~jrice/index.html

 

[golfish]

I use a 400 watt Iwasaki over my glass cross bar. The bulb is 5.5" from it and has a 4" fan blowing across the top of the cross bar. The glass never gets hot to the touch.

If your interested I have a 2 month old 400 watt Sunburst bulb I'll let you have for ooooooo say 40.00.....IMO, these bulbs aren't good for anything but making a tank look blue.

Mark

 

[Greg Hiller]

FWIW, I also cracked the top of my acylic tank with a 250 W Iwasaki a bit too close to the acrylic. The crack started to propagate down the front of the tank!!! If I were you I would not chance it.

- Greg Hiller

 

[Anonymous]

If your fan ever fails, the light could break the center brace (and then possibly the tank). I wouldn't do it.

jayo

 

[AnotherGoldenTeapot]

You could always simulate what would happen with a fan failure by having the lights over a piece of glass with no fans for a few hours.

In my case I confirmed that I needed to use toughened glass - this was obvious from the start since I was mounitng the bulbs 3 inches from the top of the tank - all the same I wanted to do a stress test - just to be sure.

 

[golfish]

or run 2 other fans like I do

 

[NaH2Ofreak]

So y'all think it would be ok to do as long as I had a fan blowing on the center brace?

Thanx again!
Dennis

 

[NaH2Ofreak]

Alright....I think I will heed the advice and not do it. I really dont want to have a 400W halide on one side and a 175W on the other and in the middle. I dont know if I really like that look.

Oh well...back to the drawing board. I just recently got this very nice brand new 400W ballast. It is in an enclosure. It is meant to be in I think a "high bay" or whatever fixture. It could be hooked up remotly with no problem!!!!

Out of curiosity....could you make the ballast run two 175 watters safely? Maybe split the socket wires two ways so there are two sockets???? Or is this a no go? Anyone wanna trade?????

Thanx for all the help everyone!!!!
Dennis