One strong powerfull light in the middle or multiple less powerfull lights spread over the surface?

[hamfist]

Hi @Sanniejop, I run both my 150L tanks with two cheap full-length LED panels (timed/adjustable) - with one panel I just couldn’t get the even natural somewhat diffuse coverage that I wanted, mainly because the lights had to be on top of the glass (as shown in @tiger15 pics above). Hanging the lights which naturally would diffuse it, was not an option.


Cheers,
Michael

Its an important point to make Michael.
In my scenario, the light is right close up to the water surface, plus the tank is very deep back to front. All that changes the relative angle of a single light to each plant quite a lot.

 

[tiger15]

Hi @Sanniejop, I run both my 150L tanks with two cheap full-length LED panels (timed/adjustable) - with one panel I just couldn’t get the even natural somewhat diffuse coverage that I wanted, mainly because the lights had to be on top of the glass (as shown in @tiger15 pics above). Hanging the lights which naturally would diffuse it, was not an option.

With the light being close to the surface you would want to make sure it’s not overly intense as it may spark algae growth - of course depending on a multitude of other factors.

Cheers,
Michael

Professional Nature aquariums have lights hang above open top tank. I cannot do that as I keep big fish that will jump out and must have LED strips sit on top of glass lid. The glass lid not only reflects some light away, but also invites algae growth on the underside from condensation where the clean up crew cannot access. So I have to scrape off algae from time to time.