lighting & heat question

[listen2bob]

Thought I would gather some opinions from you all .
So I have been running 150 hqi over my tanks for over a decade with an open top, no canopy. Currently both my reflectors and ballasts can also run 250 hqi. I am considering raising my lights about 10-12" and going with 250's.
My question is more about the changes in water temp that I should expect with the 250's to see if it would be worth it.

What do you think?

 

[kory1006]

If it isn't broke, why fix it? Your tank looks amazing as it is now as is.

 

[blindskater02]

If it isn't broke, why fix it? Your tank looks amazing as it is now as is.

Agreed!

 

[listen2bob]

Thanks, The issue is I am potentially losing stuff due to heavy shading and I think having a bit more light may open up a couple spots for some pieces that have been on the rack for way too long. Plus I would like to see if I can squeeze a bit more color out of a couple colonies.
Guess I could just frag like mad and get the light back down to the rocks.
Tough choice since I believe in the stability of a system being the key to long term health and success. It is tempting because all it will cost is a 250 bulb.

 

[MJNTWise]

Or go bigger. LOL. So what are you going to frag?

 

[MrHarvard]

I'm by no means an expert but I'll take a shot at this. First off how high off the water are your lights mounted now? I'm not sure how much more heat (in degrees) the 250w will put off but raising it the 12" may offset the extra heat. I would also ask myself how much light spillage you are going to have with raising the lights with no hood and if you can deal with that. I would be a little concerned about doing a 60% increase in lighting over your INCREDIBLE tank in general. Trust me I completely understand your thought process but if I were you I would frag and play it safe because in your case I don't think the risk is worth the reward. Just my thoughts.

 

[MrHarvard]

Another thought when you frag you may want to try placing a few frags in different areas of the tank (deeper) than the original colony you may get some color variations out of the acros that you really like.

 

[listen2bob]

These lol, basically everything


The birdsnests I traded for last year have officially taken off and are shading out everything below and my giant frogspawn needs to be cut in half.

Ideally the answer would be to sell the condo, buy a house, upgrade tanks and spread everything out, but that would also require me to upgarde basically all my equipment,

 

[listen2bob]

I'm by no means an expert but I'll take a shot at this. First off how high off the water are your lights mounted now? I'm not sure how much more heat (in degrees) the 250w will put off but raising it the 12" may offset the extra heat. I would also ask myself how much light spillage you are going to have with raising the lights with no hood and if you can deal with that. I would be a little concerned about doing a 60% increase in lighting over your INCREDIBLE tank in general. Trust me I completely understand your thought process but if I were you I would frag and play it safe because in your case I don't think the risk is worth the reward. Just my thoughts.

Right now they are in the "foxface splash zone" about 5" or so off the water so no spill currently. As for fragging and placing elsewhere, uh its either on top, or in the dark for the most part.
My problem with fragging is that I hate having a frag rack in tank and am super busy between thesis writing and work and life in general so it can be a pain to meet up to off the frags.

Might try changing 1 light to a 250 and see what happens when I need to change bulbs

 

[installman]

Right now they are in the "foxface splash zone" about 5" or so off the water so no spill currently. As for fragging and placing elsewhere, uh its either on top, or in the dark for the most part.
My problem with fragging is that I hate having a frag rack in tank and am super busy between thesis writing and work and life in general so it can be a pain to meet up to off the frags.

Might try changing 1 light to a 250 and see what happens when I need to change bulbs

I have never seen your tank in person,but in the pics it looks like everything is right the way it is. I am no expert on the subject either but wouldn't more light equal more growth and thus more frags to deal with?

 

[listen2bob]

I have never seen your tank in person,but in the pics it looks like everything is right the way it is. I am no expert on the subject either but wouldn't more light equal more growth and thus more frags to deal with?

Perhaps, more growth could be an issue. I believe the limitations on growth with the 150's allows me to just run kalk. Would probably need to go 2 part with the 250

 

[aguila88psi]

I would consider fragging, just take a few pics and see if your LFS is interested, if yes then frag and trade in for credit the same day, no need for frag racks another option is to set up a frag tank and plumb it into your system, I think Petco will have a $1/g sale end of March, I'm gonna upgrade mine from 20l to a 29g for the extra height, I say frag frag frag