Rick,

In the original setup the bulbs were probably only about 1-2" away
from the glass as the whole fixture was built to fit under the
existing hood that had a clearance of only about 4 inches underneath.
My heat problem came from not having any good way for the hot air to
leave the space between the reflector and the glass top. With the
spacers added the problem vanished. I do highly recommend the kits
from AH Supply. Very easy to put together and the light output is
just phenomenal. I'm sure others will agree that for the price they
really can't be beat. I wish you luck

David


On Thu, 08 Jan 2004 02:39:28 GMT, "Rick"
wrote:


"David" David underscore J underscore Griffiths at yahoo dot com wrote in
message ...
A quick recap for those who missed the first post....


"2x96w compact flourescents in a nice custom poplar
box. Pretty easy job really. Put the thing on top of the Versa-tops
on the tank and turned it on. Wow, that's nice, very bright, great
color, I like. I keep it on while doing some final plumbing, etc.
CRACK!!! Both sides of the glass top now have a nice set of cracks
from the amazing amount of heat these things put out. I know I should
have anticipated this, but as I said in opening, Stupid David. "


It has been a wonderful 3 or 4 days now. I finally received the two
new panels of tempered glass to replace the old cracked pieces from my
versa-top, added some 3/4 inch "stilts" to the bottom of the fixture
and drilled 2 3/4" holes in each end of the fixture and Voila. The
light has been running for 12 hours a day for 3 days now and no sign
of any cracks or other problems. The glass actually seems relatively
cool to the touch now, perhaps the tempered glass was a bit overkill
but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Thanks to all who responded to my original post, as soon as the fish
and plants are in I'll be sure to post some pictures of my first ever
attempt at a "real" aquarium setup

David

David on your original set up , how far were the bulbs from the glass tops.
I'm about to make a canopy for my 77g tank. I may elect to go with T8's
which would be about 7" from the glass and would pose no heat problems
however compacts are an option.

Rick