Bow Front lighting ?

[Awibrandy]

Hi guys/gals!

As I look in my bow front, and see the shadowed sides of my tank I began to wonder if it is just my tank that has this issue, or if it is infact due to how my light fixture is placed.
Is anyone else having this problem with their bow front tank, or could it be that my light fixture sits in a canopy?

I have been contemplating adding another bulb or two to the front part of the bow section of the canopy, but I am not sure that this would help. Besides I really do not want to incur a higher electric bill then what I already have.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

My light fixture is a Odysea 3 X 250 watt Helios MH with 4 X 24 watt AquaMedic pc sitting approximately 8" above the water surface in the openning in the canopy. My tank is a 155 Bow Front mixed reef.
I have had to place all of my SPS on the center island due to the low light to the two sides of the tank.:banghead:

 

[The_Codfather]

Have you tried a higher height for the fixture?

 

[anthony27]

It is a real pain to light a bow front tank esp the size of the one you have I would move the light up more and change the way you have it housed the hood it sits in could be ristrictin the light rays to only the areas that they are allowed

 

[Awibrandy]

Hi Cod_Father, they were higher at one point, and still had the same problem.

It is a real pain to light a bow front tank esp the size of the one you have I would move the light up more and change the way you have it housed the hood it sits in could be ristrictin the light rays to only the areas that they are allowed

Anthony, I think the canopy is the problem. But then again it could be the fixture itself.

I do noticed that this is the case with the pc portion of the fixture, not so with the MH if I recall correctly. I will pay better attention when the MH come on this evening.

 

[anthony27]

I rember the capony and it looked limited to the light rays and them reaching the tank

 

[Awibrandy]

That is why I have been thinking of adding a couple of T5 HO to the front part of the canopy. T5 because they are thin enough to fit the space available, and the ballast can be attached to the back of the canopy with a heat sink....

 

[The_Codfather]

Just come across this I know this is a corner bow But hope it helps for a light config.. go to page 2 too
http://photobucket.com/images/92 gallon corner tank/

 

[Awibrandy]

Thank you CodFather!! That is basically what I was talking about doing with my canopy, by adding 1 or 2 T5 to the bow part of the canopy.

BTW, it is only with the PC bulbs that I have the shadow issue. Now I have to figuer out if it is the fact that they are 2 AquaMedic Dulux Compact blue 24 watt, and 2 24W 7100k DAYLIGHT (JALLI)
bulbs. Perhaps they are just weak bulbs, and adding the T5, or even a string of LED would brighten things up a bit.