Is it better to have the light 6-7 inches above the water or against the lid

[candymancan]

I have a 44g Pentagon.. that im messing with and I have a Orbit 2x 65w Power Compact light. Its 22 inches long the tank is 30 inches long and 25 inches deep. So the tank has a lot of girth making it hard to get light in every spot of the tank.. I have the light along the length of the tank and in doing so the very back corner of the tank is kinda dark but if I position the light differently then another spot of the tank is dark.. So I just put a T8 light fixture in the back to keep it lit up.

Now the Orbit fixture has legs that raise it a good 6-7 inches above the water line. I can take those legs off and lay it directly on the glass.. But im wondering what would be better for lighting the tank ? Would raising it be better to spread the light more through the tank... or would putting it against the glass be better ? I noticed raising it lowers the light level in the tank by quite a lot and lowering it makes the tank a lot brighter.. but im sure the light spread throughout the tank isn't as great laying down vs standing up..

I just dunno what to do lol.

 

[candymancan]

kinda surprised after like 10 days no one has answered my question lol..

What is better to have the lights higher up or further down ?

 

[Tim Harrison]

Maybe you need a bigger light that will give you a more even spread...

 

[candymancan]

Well the tank is 25 inches deep (front to back).. I doubt there is any light made that is that big.. And this fixture I have is pretty big in itself.. it has 2 PC bulbs.. essentially 4 tubes.. I have to use a 13 inch T8 fixture in the back of the tank to light the back up lol So I have basically 5 tubes over my tank... 25 inches deep is deeper then a 75-110g tank.. So you can imagine how difficult it is to light this thing