115watts ffor my 92g! 82o in winter!

[JediMasterThrash]

Well, fall finally hit Minnehsootah. Temperatures are now regularly below 60. And with gas prices expected to double this winter, I'm trying to keep the house down around 65 most of the time. Compared to the 75 I keep it in the summer.And with all I've learned in the last year about the importance of heat for our crabbies, I needed to add a little more heat to the tank.With the house at 75 in the summer, my two 25w moonglos (and 15w flourescent during the day) kept the temperature in the upper 70s near the surface and low 80's on the 3rd level near the lights.I'd found another small incandescent fixture at a thrift store for 2$. So I bought two more 25w niteglos for it. I plugged them in yesterday.Now with a total of 4 25w moonlights, plus the 15w flouresscent during the day, I have 115w of lights for my 92gallon. Now even with the house at 65-68o, the tank is between 78 and 82 surface to 3rd level.Also, I learned something important about mold. Mold grows when it's *cool* and damp. It doesn't grow when it's warm.I've got those long thin cholla logs by the water pools for the crabs to use to climb up to the water (the pool lips aren't are substrate level to prevent the crabs from dumping substrate into them). They're wet all the time from splashing water from the filter spouts, but so far no sigh of mold since the temp is near 80.I remember my first tank, the temp was only like 72 or lower, with 75-80% humidity, and the driftwood and cholla would sprout mold like mad.I've also read that you can kill mold just by spraying hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on it (don't even need clean and nuke/bake it). However, I'm not sure how good that would be for crabs. But I bought a plant greenhouse kit, and it says that if you get mold in the greenhouse, just spray H2O2 on it.

[moire_eel]

I'm not sure I would put too much faith in the "cool and damp" vs "warm and damp" theory where mold's concerned. I live where it's warm and damp most of the year, and believe me, mold does really well here. I offer up the city of New Orleans as an example -- many of the homes damaged by the storm are now quite moldy, and it's not a bit cool along the Gulf Coast yet. My bet is that additional light is what's retarding the mold. Light is not a friend to mold.