Lance's 225 gal tank

Parker · #1 08-23-2011, 12:40 AM

Hey Lance,

How far off the waters surface are your 400's?

Lance · #2 08-23-2011, 01:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parker

Hey Lance,

How far off the waters surface are your 400's?

18"....... XM 15K's I had Geisemann 13K, but found them too yellow. With the XM's are 4x10K 39W T5's and 4x actinic 39W T5's

Parker · #3 08-23-2011, 02:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lance

18"....... XM 15K's I had Geisemann 13K, but found them too yellow. With the XM's are 4x10K 39W T5's and 4x actinic 39W T5's

Yikes! I guess I better raise mine up. I've been thinking they are much too close at 6" lol

Lance · #4 08-23-2011, 03:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parker

Yikes! I guess I better raise mine up. I've been thinking they are much too close at 6" lol

18" from the bulb, not the glass of the fixture. 15" from the actual fixture.
Do you have a heat problem at 6"?

Parker · #5 08-23-2011, 03:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lance

18" from the bulb, not the glass of the fixture. 15" from the actual fixture.
Do you have a heat problem at 6"?

Rarely, maybe once or twice a year will my APEX shut the lights down because the tank gets to warm. It has to be above 27/28c outside for a few consecutive days before the basement starts to warm up to the level that the lights push the tank over the edge.

I was more concerned with bleaching and such.. I'm running 2 IC 10k's and 1 IC 14k

Lance · #6 08-23-2011, 03:27 AM

I don't have much for SPS in this tank, mostly LPS and softies. Several of the fish like to sample SPS polyps so I moved them to the 90g. The SPS did do well under these lights though. I read somewhere that 12" is a good rule of thumb for 400W halides over a 24" tank, depending of course on the bulb and the corals.

Parker · #7 08-23-2011, 03:47 AM

I have a 30" deep tank, with the halides at 6" above the water surface I can grow SPS on the sand, they actually do better down there. If I were to raise the lighting about 12" I should be able to grow SPS effectively down to about 15" below the water surface or right about where the tops of my lower piles of rock work sits, which gives me the bottom half of the rock work for lower light coral.

Thoughts? I guess it doesn't hurt to try it out.