Better lighting?

[pete33]

Had a 24 Aquapod and moved to my new 30 gal aquarium. Transferred my 20" 150 MH Sunpod to this tank and aquired 2 nice SPS frags sitting about 12" from light. Things are doing well (using a Phoenix 14k). Question, would I get better color / growth with a 250 watt fixture? It's tough because I don't want to hang it and the tank is 30" long - so not much choice. I really like my Sunpod, but if there are better solutions I might switch. Should I be ok with my current unit? Are there benefits of switching to a higher end fixture? Thanks, any suggestions appreciated.

 

[FinancialReef]

I've found the more light the more growth with my SPS

 

[santarosasalt]

+1. Acros love light. More light equals more growth and more color. Just make sure you acclimate the corals to the light.

 

[Felixc395]

I'd try feeding before I'd try more light if I were you. If things are going fine, no need to change them. There's a limit to what SPS actually need, and often this is overshot by a mile. Not saying this is you at all, but assuming you're running a 150 watt over a 30 gallon, that should be plenty of light.

I should ask what do you feed? What do your corals look like? Growth?

 

[chrishayes]

Well I will throw my 2cents in. I just recently upgraded from a 28nc to a 45 custom. The lighting was a 150w in the nc stock hood and when I went to the new setup I changed to a 250w with a lumenmax2. The colors are better in the new tank. This can be chocked up to a dozen different causes but I feel that the 150 being so close to the water surface was causing issues for the corals. The new fixture is 10" over the surface and it seems to be lighting the corals much better without burning them to death. All anecdotal but I did see improvement when changing lighting but as I said I dont know that I would attribute it to the increase in wattage...