Hydras overheating anyone’s tank?

[living_tribunal]

I have 2 hydra 26s above my 65g at 8”. They seem to be generating a lot of heat below the bulbs and have been heating my tank to 80-81 degrees.

I have removed my heater to test this and during daytime light, my tank remains at the temp range above.

As soon as it hits night and my lights go off the tank goes back to what my heater is set to.

I’m debating whether to increase their height up to 9-10” which would be unfortunate but the only alternative is to get a chiller.

Has anyone experienced this?

 

[Zohar78]

Fans

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do you think this would help? for when the lights is on?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Interesting. I have two 26 hds over my tank with T5's and have no significant heat increase. Is this in an enclosed canopy or anything?

 

[living_tribunal]

Fans

Bulk Reef Supply - Saltwater Aquarium Supplies for Reef Tanks

www.bulkreefsupply.com

do you think this would help? for when the lights is on?

Potentially, I also want to make sure I’m not crazy with others having experienced this before I purchase a chiller.

I don’t have a controller so adding a chiller makes me slightly nervous.

 

[living_tribunal]

Interesting. I have two 26 hds over my tank with T5's and have no significant heat increase. Is this in an enclosed canopy or anything?

Completely open top setup.

The fans work great on the back side of the lights but I can feel the heat from the bulbs on the water with my hand.

I’m using the saxby preset. I may have to do some more testing and it could very well be something else. For now, I’m stumped.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Completely open top setup.

The fans work great on the back side of the lights but I can feel the heat from the bulbs on the water with my hand.

I’m using the saxby preset. I may have to do some more testing and it could very well be something else. For now, I’m stumped.

Saxby at 8 inches may be a bit much. I'm running the BRS modified AB+ schedule and I have mine 10" off the water. Saxby has the blues at a higher percentage. However a 65 is deeper than a 75 I think.
What types of coral are you keeping?

 

[living_tribunal]

Saxby at 8 inches may be a bit much. I'm running the BRS modified AB+ schedule and I have mine 10" off the water. Saxby has the blues at a higher percentage. However a 65 is deeper than a 75 I think.
What types of coral are you keeping?

This is an lps dominate tank. I’m honestly not the biggest fan of the saxby setup. Interestingly enough, the tank temp peaks around 7-8pm which is when the lights start heavy blues.

I was thinking of changing presets, I primarily stock lps but have a few montis (caps and digitatas) at the top. The digitatas will grow wherrver I put them but the caps want higher par, around 150ish.

Do you have a preset in mind for those goals?

 

[living_tribunal]

This is an lps dominate tank. I’m honestly not the biggest fan of the saxby setup. Interestingly enough, the tank temp peaks around 7-8pm which is when the lights start heavy blues.

I was thinking of changing presets, I primarily stock lps but have a few montis (caps and digitatas) at the top. The digitatas will grow wherrver I put them but the caps want higher par, around 150ish.

Do you have a preset in mind for those goals?

Edit* my 65 isn’t the deepest, 25” I believe, because it’s very wide (18”).

 

[jsker]

The best way to tell if you light are heating the system, is to place a fan blow across the top of the tank. The fan will cool the tank. I have a ceiling fan above mine to cool the tank and to add air to the system.

I am running two Hydra 26 hd's

 

[Crabs McJones]

I was thinking of changing presets, I primarily stock lps but have a few montis (caps and digitatas) at the top. The digitatas will grow wherrver I put them but the caps want higher par, around 150ish.

Do you have a preset in mind for those goals?

Edit* my 65 isn’t the deepest, 25” I believe, because it’s very wide (18”).

One last question, how much surface agitation do you have? The more surface agitation the more evaporation the cooler the tank will stay. You'll go through more top off water though.
Heres my preset that I'm using
Uv %118
V %101
RB %82
B %65
R %6
G %5
Cw %19

This runs for 10 hours from 11 am to 9 pm

 

[living_tribunal]

One last question, how much surface agitation do you have? The more surface agitation the more evaporation the cooler the tank will stay. You'll go through more top off water though.
Heres my preset that I'm using
Uv %118
V %101
RB %82
B %65
R %6
G %5
Cw %19

This runs for 10 hours from 11 am to 9 pm

Not the most tbh, my jebaos can cause about 1-2” in waves so I keep them slightly lower, maybe 4” deep into the tank.

I’ll first try lifting up the lights another inch or so to verify they are the cause and will give that preset a shot as well.

Thanks for the recommendation!

 

[living_tribunal]

Here’s a pic of my setup, I’m adding one more jebao in the front left soon.

 

[living_tribunal]

I went ahead and raised them to 9.5”, I’ll have to see if that helps in the morning.

 

[living_tribunal]

Forgot to follow up on this, lifting the lights another inch and a half worked. My tank has remained at a stable 78 since.

Thanks @Crabs McJones