Lumenbright large finished. 17 inches off water

[Achapman]

I just had
my canopy made for my tank. I hung the 3 Lumenbright large finished fixtures. However the bottom of the reflector is 17 inches off the top of the water.

250 Icecap ballasts with 12k Reefluxs.

Should I find a way to lower them somehow? Or will it make that big of a difference.

[ridetheducati]

how far are the bulbs away from the water?

[Rouselb]

If they are the large pendants you can leave them at that height. its normally 16" from water to bulb, do you have a PAR meter? How deep is the tank. Do you have any clams on the bottom of the tank? If you hang them a bit high, it will only decrease the PAR.

[Achapman]

They are the Large finished pendants. 20x20x9 I think. The bulb would be about 20inches from the water. No clams yet.

Standard 180 - 72x24x24

I wish I had a PAR meter.

Any guess on how much I am losing?

[Rouselb]

What bulbs are you going to run? If you leave the pendants at that height i would go with a stronger bulb (better PAR, use Sanjays results as a reference). Stay away from the 20k. Go with something in the 10-14k range. You will be fine, you should still be capable of keeping pretty much anything, specially if you run with a 10k bulb. I would guess that you would be in the 160-200 PAR range in the sand. How deep will the sand be?

I think the general concensus for the large are roughly 18", but look at this article. It has some info on up to 22".

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-06/review/index.php