400W DE, anyone use em?

[untamed]

Originally Posted by Whatigot

would you still go 250 brad?
or would you go to a higher wattage?

I moved my 250 de's another 2" off the top of the water after I saw how your lighting was set up btw....

I've had fine results with 250W. Maybe things would be better with 400W..I don't know. Certainly, my power bill would be larger! If I had to do it again, my tank would be larger (6x6) and run 9 x 250W which would be about the same power consumption as 6x400W.

I have been tempted to run my lights closer to the water than in the past. No coral seems to mind how close the lights are. However, running them any closer to the surface leaves them more open to splashing and they get in the way of simple feeding. Moving them up and down for every feeding would be too annoying.

I borrowed the PAR meter and PAR measurements at the bottom of the tank are pretty low. (27" deep, I recall) However, I've also got coral that will reach the surface soon enough. There's enough light somewhere for everything.

[Whatigot]

well put.
I was shocked to see how high your lights were up compared to mine when you had such obviously happy corals and really nice color.

sometimes I think I take to much of what i read to heart and ignore what experience is telling me.

I wanted to upgrade to 400 de's before, but now I consider 250 des more than adequate.