light acclimation

In the coming weeks I am needing to upgrade light bulbs on my 4 bulb fixture. I am thinking of the following bulb combinations:

2 Blue Plus, 1 Aquablue special, and 1 Purple plus or 2 Blue Plus, 2 Aquablue special


My question has to do with light acclimation on the new bulbs. I'd like to change them all at once, but I have a couple questions about the best way to do this.

The first is, do I need to acclimate the tank to new antic bulbs, or just the daylight ones?

Here are my two ideas on how to do the acclimation. Which would you choose and why?

A. Leave antics on the same schedule (unless of course they need acclimation as well) but reduce the daylight bulbs to 4 hours, then increase an hour or two every week.

B. Leave lights on current schedule, add egg crate top to reduce light.

 

Pure actinic should cause little or no problem. All other bulbs you will need to acclimate.

Either way is fine. I change out one bulb a week until all are changed.

 

Ok, so I can throw on the Blue Plus Bulbs and one of the others, wait a week, and put the others in?

I guess that won't be bad. I was anticipating having to add a bulb, wait a week, add another, for four weeks til I have them all in, lol :/

 

No you will want to do ONE bulb each week not one color of bulbs. The Blue Plus have higher PAR than your white bulbs.

 

Lol, so in other words they're not true antics.

This is why I ask these questions. I am soooooo lost when it comes to lighting, haha.

Would it be overkill using this as my antic lighting? I have an aquaticlife 4 bulb fixture that I am looking to have 2 antics and 2 white bulbs so I can keep my same lighting schedule. If I use the two blue plus as a replacement for my antics, am I going to need to cut down their light cycle?

Sorry for being so lost with it, lol. Thanks for the help

 

Not even close. You will want to cut back on the lights or raise the fixture at least 24" above the sand.

Lighting is tough. Buy 2 ATI actinic bulbs instead of the Blue Plus. You will have more PAR from the ATI bulbs than the Aquaticlife brand. If everything is doing well in your tank then just replace the actinics with actinics. Replacing one of the whites with the Purple Plus is a good idea.

 

Ok, I think I will just replace with the actinics then.

Thanks for all the help!!

 

I am looking at ordering that exact setup, I have it in my cart on bulk reef supply but I havent placed the order yet as I am still doing research on what bulb combo I like the best

Can you please post pictures of your tank before the new bulbs and after?

 

I will Post pictures for sure.

Still debating which combo to go with. Actinics with my same light period, or the one listed above with a shorter light cycle.

Actinics are doing good, but I did add a crocea clam, so the extra light would probably be loved by him!

 

I have the same setup as you are looking to order on my 4 bulb set.
2 Blue Plus, 1 Aquablue special, and 1 Purple plus

For me, the idea of changing one bulb a week is a pain. I change all 4 bulbs at once and change the timer for all 4 down to about an hour/two hours a day. Then every other day I add 30 minutes till I'm back to normal range.

Works great for me and is much simpler IMO.

Also, that light combo has been insanely awesome. I love it the look and the coral growth from it. It's the way to go IMO.