Re: Safely coverting Eclipse lights to AHS PCs

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Kirk M. said:

> Only thing I 
> don't like about the Eclipse hood is how it concentrates
> light over the 
> front of the tank.
> 

Yes.  More so the smaller ones than the larger ones, which
tend to put more light towards the center than the small
ones.  I think this is for 3 reasons:

1)  it puts the filter at the back so when yo open the hood
you can feed the fish without having to reach over the
filter, although I don't know why that's such a benefit;

2) The fish tend to look prettier when the light is
reflecting from a forward angle;

3) when using the design low light level (so that mass
market of new hobbyists don't get too discouraged with
algae problems) putting the light in front makes the tank
seem a bit brighter than it really is overall.

On a rectangular tank, you can turn Eclipse hood around. 
On a bow front Eclispe System tank, that's not a very good
option ;-) .

Or you can make some adjustments to how you aquascape.  You
can't put light hungry plants in the back.  This is one of
the reasons that Eclipses work somewhat better as low
light, slow grow tanks than as fast grow tanks.

Bleheri swords do pretty well under the stock lighting,
even at the back, although they do better right under the
light -- so arrange and prune accordingly.

Scott H.

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