LED's on glass

[alexkharden]

I have 2 reef breeder photon 24's that are going over my 190g DT that will have 23" of water in it. I have two 1/4" pieces of glass that I will be using for a canopy top. I was wondering if there would be any problem lying the led boxes directly on the glass, instead of hanging them above the tank. I'm not worried about air exchange because I have a large sump and oversized skimmer, I know the glass can easily support the weight, and I know that I'll have to keep the intensities lower because the lights will only be 2 1/2 inches off the water if on top of the glass. What I don't know is if the fixtures will overheat or anything, and if having them closer to the water will affect the spread of the light too badly. Can someone give me some guidance? Thanks everyone!

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[DaveK]

I would not recommend that you place LED lighting directly on the glass. I see several possible problems in doing so.

I see it as much too easy to drop the fixture into the tank. This will obviously ruin the fixture, and you'll need a replacement or major repairs.

I also see this as way too easy for salt creep to get on and into the fixture.

LED fixtures like to direct their light more or less straight down. Assuming you mount the lights along the length of the tank, you'll end up with dark areas near the surface, and to some extent along the front and back of the tank at the bottom. If you tank is a 6 foot long tank, you'll also have dark areas at the ends and in the middle.

In looking at the fixture, it seems to include a set of brackets so you can mount it above the tank. I think this will give you much better results. However, I do think that it's asking a lot of two 130w LED fixtures to illuminate a 190g tank. Just to give you an idea, I run 4 AI Hydra 52's over my 125 gal reef. The are about 130w each at full power.