lighting and the heat generated

smcnulty

New Member
I recently upgraded from PC to VHO lighting. I went from 220 to 440 watts on my 180. It is viewable from three sides, so the LR is not piled against any of the sides - all in the middle. For that reason the "rules of thumb" for wattage do not apply.
My concern has been the heat generated. It was 82 degrees in California yesterday and I can see that heat in my tank is going to be an issue. How hot is too hot for these critters? My tank hit 83 yesterday - everything looks fine, but...
I have several fans and am hoping to not add a chiller. Any suggestions?
 

smcnulty

New Member
Thanks for all the replies! This was a first for me.
I have the ice cap varible fan, I also bought three of the dual fans from marine-monsters.com at $50 a pop, another 4" similar to the ice cap but not variable and two little desk fans I have for underneath blowing in the sump. I've never run them all at the same time but I might have to. Bob what is HTH? I do have the remote e-ballast if you mean the Ice cap 660. It is in the canopy but never even warm.
The small a/c unit might work, but my wife has already been rather patient. She acually has no idea how much I have into this little 180 galloon gem! All the things I have plugged in have jacked my power bill up at least $100 per month. Not PC in CA at this point with all the black outs!
Sounds like if I keep it in the low 80's things should be OK. If all those fans can't do it I'll have to take the final step and get a chiller and MH lights! Probably sooner...
Thanks for all the help.
 
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