blesum
Member
First off, it's a POS tank hood with 2x 40w fixtures at 48 inches long on a 120-gallon tank. The old lights were for plants/quariums with a pinkish tint to them, were cool and a few years old. I think the plants on the LR are doing poorly and I read somewhere that even if these lights are still lit, they're no longer emiting what they need to so I took them out and headed to ***** for their best 40w replacements.
Their best ones were called "Power-Glo" and "Ideal for salt water aquariums, fresh water aquariums, planted aquariums, corals and invertebrates." 18,000K with a lux rating of 180. About 27 bucks each. I'm pretty skeptical of them but they were the best they had...
The tank is a cool water set-up for local marine animals and needs to stay between 60-70 degrees, ideally at about 64-66.
My tank temperature was at 61.0 on Monday (room unheated all weekend) and hit a high of 62.4 in the afternoon which is too chilly so I got a classroom heater on Tuesday afternoon (64.9 high) and left it running overnight. This morning (Wednesday) when I got to the classroom it was at 65.7. Perfect.
I left the heater (not near the tank) on for the day and put in new lights. Tank rose to 67.1 by lunch time. I shut down the heater but 4 hours later, the tank is now at 67.8 and still rising. Should I be worried? Probably too early to tell but maybe some here will have a few words of wisdom (other than toss the hood and buy a better light fixture) or thoughts.
The class has no money so getting an high-end lighting set up, or a chiller is out of the question. I am currently trying to find plans or a how-to for a cheap, foolproof non-drilled sump as that should help stablize the temperature.
No "real" animals in there yet - just some brittle stars, hermit crabs, snails, slugs, worms, etc - All which have been doing fine for the past couple or so weeks.
-Blesum
Their best ones were called "Power-Glo" and "Ideal for salt water aquariums, fresh water aquariums, planted aquariums, corals and invertebrates." 18,000K with a lux rating of 180. About 27 bucks each. I'm pretty skeptical of them but they were the best they had...
The tank is a cool water set-up for local marine animals and needs to stay between 60-70 degrees, ideally at about 64-66.
My tank temperature was at 61.0 on Monday (room unheated all weekend) and hit a high of 62.4 in the afternoon which is too chilly so I got a classroom heater on Tuesday afternoon (64.9 high) and left it running overnight. This morning (Wednesday) when I got to the classroom it was at 65.7. Perfect.
I left the heater (not near the tank) on for the day and put in new lights. Tank rose to 67.1 by lunch time. I shut down the heater but 4 hours later, the tank is now at 67.8 and still rising. Should I be worried? Probably too early to tell but maybe some here will have a few words of wisdom (other than toss the hood and buy a better light fixture) or thoughts.
The class has no money so getting an high-end lighting set up, or a chiller is out of the question. I am currently trying to find plans or a how-to for a cheap, foolproof non-drilled sump as that should help stablize the temperature.
No "real" animals in there yet - just some brittle stars, hermit crabs, snails, slugs, worms, etc - All which have been doing fine for the past couple or so weeks.
-Blesum
