SW canopy lighting

[kennyman]

Well I got myself a spiffy 90gal drilled with overflow and a fancy stand/canopy to boot. A great deal on Kijiji this weekend! There is no lighting in it and no glass splash guards and I have a few questions about how you guys have dealt with this. Btw there is 5 1/2 in between the interior of the canopy and the top frame of the tank.

Do I need splashguards if I install a couple of banks of diy T5's?
How do you mount a MH in there? is there enough room?
How do you insulate the canopy from heat transfer with a MH?
How badly does bits of salt creep and spray effect these laminate covered press board stands without glass splash guards?

Thanks for any help.

[redbelly]

Do I need splashguards if I install a couple of banks of diy T5's?
Personally I hate splash guards. I never run any type of covering over tanks simply because it reduced the light going into the tank by a fair amount. If you end up putting one on and wonder how much light it is blocking out I can bring over my lux meter and test it out for you if you want.

How do you mount a MH in there? is there enough room?
Thats a tight space for installing a MH. Small DE reflectors would probably be your only option.
What about slightly raising the canopy? small legs in the corner that would ecentially give you an air gap between the tank and canopy.

How do you insulate the canopy from heat transfer with a MH?
A couple decent fans in there and you wont have a problem.

How badly does bits of salt creep and spray effect these laminate covered press board stands without glass splash guards?
I cant answer how badly it will damage the canopy in the long run to be honest. I always coat the inside of canopies with a marine enamel paint.

[kennyman]

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions Pat 

Here is the type of canopy I am dealing with. The logo on the tank says Miracles Aquariums Having just found their website I may look into the lighting options they offer.

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[gvv]

Not sure MH can be placed there... You need some space between bulbs and water at least to  avoid splashes, and looks like in you case reflectors will possibly touch the water. My MH bulbs are about 8-9" over the water level and they are DE with glass guard.
Also it will be very difficult to do something inside the tank with lights on.

Not sure if Pat's idea will be good, legs under such canopy will not look good. I would rather consider to do canopy myself, as I did for my tank, because the only idea that is coming to me is to use T5s. Not sure, but it seems to me I saw people placing T5 bulbs even on the canopy door that is going up.

Regards