Reefbound
Well-known member
I have a Nova extreme unit 8x54 432watt thats 4 inches above the water and I think its too close. How high do you keep you units?
Need T5 users input.
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Scooterman
Well-known member
My Outer Orbit is about less than 4" off the water surface & I have a 250MH along with 4 T5's on it.
Are you getting salt splash on your unit? What is it that makes you think it's too close? Are you seeing signs of coral bleaching? I have a 6 bulb Tek 5 on my 75, about the same distance from the water. Depending on the lighting demands of your tank inhabitants, you could probably move it higher...however, it'd help to know why you think it's too low, before giving any better advice.
Reefbound
Well-known member
All of what you said returnofsid, mostly the colors that are closer to light seem to be washed out... but a pink birdsnest that I have which is about 14 inches from the light looks fantastic.All of the lower corals look great but the ones closer look washed out.
Can you lower those corals? If you raise the light, you might find that the corals that are doing well, ie. the Birdsnest, need to be raised in order to still get enough light.
Reefbound
Well-known member
I wish I could lower them... They are huge acros...the purple tip is 13inches tall by 16 wide.
So sounds like raising your lighting might be the only option. If you do this, you may need to raise the corals that are doing well right now.
Instead of moving the lights up (which will have practically no effect if you have decent reflectors), it might be better to put a couple of layers of fiberglass windowscreen between the lights and the water surface in order to better aclimate your corals to the brighter light.
After a week or so, remove one layer of window screen. A week or so later, remove the other layer.
After a week or so, remove one layer of window screen. A week or so later, remove the other layer.
