Does my tank have too much light?

[flyer1988]

Hi guys I got a 37 gallon discus tank. With a coralife dual t5Ho lights, total output on each light is 31W a total of 62W. Is this too much lighting? plants seem to be doing great and so are my juvi discus, but here the problem I have.

During feeding my discus, seemed to hit themselves on my clear glass the (glass that prevents fishes from jumping also known as a Vesa-top i believe). In short, I assume my discus were hit themselves when feeding on food as a result shooting themselves back down and scaring all my discus,resulting in all of them hidding and stop eating. So what I did was lower the water level about one inch from the clear glass top. Now, during my feeding I notice my discus still doing the same, which now I have come to the conclusion that maybe they freak out since to be honest there no more than an inch from the bulbs which I can image they glare out baddd....what do you all think? too much light if so, I do have a lower wattage lamp in another setup, but if I would have to move it to my 37 gallon tank, that would leave me to purchase another one for the smaller tank, since the 37 gallon light is 6inches bigger.

[ChrisNif]

Many of these type fixtures have legs, I would recommend using them. Discus are not light lovers (living in the rainforest will do that to an animal).

I am planning on metal halide for my discus tank, a big "no no" but I've got a 180 gallon and am going to be using 70W fixtures probably at least a foot off the water, and heavily planted with plants that will grow over the surface to block light.

See if your fixture will allow you to run one bulb, if not you could reballast it which is a fairly easy process for many fixtures. Might want to go T5NO which is lower wattage, but you could just swap your ballast for two like this http://www.ballastwise.com/item.asp?PID=15&FID=15&level=1 which would allow you to wire up for one bulb operation when needed (most the time) and two bulbs (for a few hours to get your plants moving).

Another option again would be to grow plants on the surface such as duckweed or vals which would grow tall enough to cover over the surface from the rear.

[Eddie]

Unless you have plants or surface plants, yes its too much IMO.

[moneyLaw]

Easy fix, just pre-soak the food before you put in the tank so that it will sink.

I may very well be wrong, but I don't think it is the light. (I am not saying you don't have too much light) When discus are aiming at food at the surface, they are in a very vulnerable position and any movement will scare them hence the skittish behavior, plus if your water is flowing fast, they will miss sometimes or most of the time when aiming at the food on the surface. So just pre-soak the food. Their bodies are round, hence more difficult for them(compared to other fish) to get food from the surface.