# A Raised light?



## bmoore09 (Nov 20, 2010)

I'm pretty new to the aquarium hobby, but I have a planted 30 gallon.

Recently I've seen some tank setups that have those "raised" lights that look pretty cool. They're raised above the lid-less tank so you can look straight down into the water. They have bars that connect them to the sides of the tank, but the tank is pretty much open. I thought this was pretty neat looking, and may be cool addition. Maybe I could add floating plants or something, I don't know.

I guess I just don't know if these lights are for any special reason or not? Are they special lights for a special cause? 

Would they be ok for justa normal freshwater tank?
And if so, what are they called? I can't find much under "raised aquarium light", so I assume there's a special name for them?

Thanks!


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

You can hang just about any light. Some hang it to cut down on the amount of light and you can also hang it and loose some of your light if you are trying to have a planted aquarium also. You don't want it to negatively affect the amount of light your plants will get from raising it. Makes maintenance a whole lot easier.

Open tanks are cool. Personally I can't handle the speed/amount of evaporation. Keeping it somewhat closed helps. I use glass canopies.


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## automatic-hydromatic (Oct 18, 2010)

yeah with my planted 30 gallon, I started with a hood with a built in light. would be fine for an average aquarium





















but as I began to get more and more plants, the light demand went up, so I went to an open top and a 36" dual T5 light fixture that stood about 2 inches above the tank off the sides of the tank. I ran it like that with both open top and with an egg-crate style cover for a while





















I just recently lifter the light up by hanging it from brackets on the wall





















I ran it completely open top like that for a while too, but I finally got tired of the MASSIVE amount of evaporation like jrman said, and made my own lid for it













The light raised up does make tank maintenance WORLDS easier, because I don't have to remove the light and set it aside every time I need to get in and trim the plants. Even with the light up and further from the tank, there's still ample light getting to the tank, because the plants are thriving, and there's still enough light left over to promote a little algae growth, which is fine because it gives my Bristlenose Plecos and my Oto a little something to munch on during the day 

I really liked the way an open-top tank looked, with no lid in the way or anything, but I've had fish take a leap, and it get's old having to top off 2.5 gallons of water every other day... so if you decide to raise the light, you may want to consider looking into buying or making some sort of lid.


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## majerah1 (Oct 29, 2010)

Most of your HO,or High Output lighting will have the option of mounting or have legs.Im not too sure of the purpose myself but would love one for my macrostoma tank.Though I still have to have it covered,they somersault out,lol.


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