Too much light for horses?

[pottsburg]

I've recently read that you can have too much light for your horses. What's the argument for this?

My 46 bowfront has only one 96watt PC with a 50/50 bulb in it. If I were to put my spare 2X65watt fixture in the hood as well, would it be too much?

Should I just settle with the one 2X65 PC since there aren't many seahorse friendly corals that need more than 3wpg of PC light? (or are there?)

 

[pledosophy]

Light is fine, high temps are not. Many associate high lighting with higher temps. I have ran 348w's of light on a 65 with horses and no problems. JME

 

[reverendmaynard]

Seahorses have no eyelids, so be sure to provide them with overhangs, caves, etc. where they can escape the light if they want to.

 

[swedge]

I have a 65 Gallon Hex tank with a 250 W MH bulb over it. My Erectus don't seem to mind at all, and the corals love it. I was running a 500W but the heat was a little much for the cooler temps they needed. I have since purchased a chiller and will most likely upgrade to the 500 W again at some point.

 

[JIM260]

Great question. I have heard they like low light myself which seems contradictory to most species' natural environments- shallow sea grass beds and/or shallow reefs. I lived in south west Florida for 20 years and witnessed the local species in shallow sea grass beds. This is an EXTREMELY high light environment.

Which leads me to another topic- tank temps. Florida Gulf- shallow area temps range from 90+ in mid summer to upper 50's to low 60's in mid winter. I am sure the extremes are stressful on all sea creatures and I certainly do not condone maintaining a tank like this. But maybe all the "forum sensitivity" to upper 70's sea horse tank temp is over stated.

 

[ann83]

Maybe, but you have to remember that an aquarium environment is very different from the ocean environment. It has been scientifically shown that the bacteria that seahorses are most succeptible to reproduce at higher rates at temperatures above 74 degrees, and that they mutate to produce different proteins. So, its not a matter of what the population of SH as a whole can survive in the ocean, its a matter of what happens to the couple of SH in the aquarium and the risks you are willing to take with them and how often you are willing to treat your seahorses for disease. Seahorses also live with predators in the ocean, but we don't put predators in our tanks, because while the seahorse population in the ocean can handle losing a few specimens to predators (or disease), the aquarium, holding only a few specimens, can't afford to lose them.

 

[pottsburg]

Neither can our wallets.

 

[jepuskar]

I'm glad I found this thread..I was about to post a similiar question.