Acclimating coral to new lighting

Hi,

I'm about to upgrade my lighting from 4 x 65 watt PCs to 8 x 65 watt T5s. I don't want to bleach or burn any of my corals. How do I acclimate them? Do I use shorter photo-periods in the beginning? If so, how short?

I have mostly soft corals and then some candy cane and a frogspawn.

Thanks in advance!

 

An easy way to acclimate an entire tank is to use window screen, the black ones. Cut layers to fit over the tank. You may want to start with 3-5 layers and remove one each week. You should be good to go after that.

 

1stly - congratulations on the new lighting - 8 x T5s ( are they 54 watts?) you will need to wear shades

Guitarmans method works well enough for many people

you could also consider
if your lamps have seperate switches (4 switches that operate 2 lamps each)
you could

week 1 and 2 use just 4 tubes
week 3 and 4 use 6 tubes
then on week 5 - commence full 8 tube lighting

another method is duration cut down

week 1 and 2 light up 6 hours only
week 3 and 4 - light up 8 hours
week 5 and 6 - 10 hours
there after run the actinics only for 1 hour before and 1 hour after the other lights have gone off - giving you the total 12 hour illumination period of which 10 hours are full lights

Steve

 

Sorry, yes 54 watts. My mistake. Thanks for giving me the different options guys! I believe that there are only 2 sets of switches, each controlling 4 bulbs and then a third set controlling some LED lunar lights that are built in. I will find out and get back to you!

 

Here's a link to a seller of the model I got:

Aquatic Eco-Systems: Aquarium Supplies - Current USA Nova Extreme HO T5 Fixtures

It's the C1123 model. My understanding is that it comes with 4 10,000K bulbs and 4 460nm actinic bulbs. I think there is one power cord for each of the sets of four and one for the lunar LEDs, so I could run one or the other for short time periods and gradually increase the time where I run them both.

Would this be okay, or would I be better off using the black mesh method?

Also...I was planning to replace some (at least 2) of the 10,000K lamps with different actinic bulbs to give the tank more of a bluish look to help the colors pop on my corals. Is that okay to do?

Thanks!

 

They may in fact have 4 switches, I'll check when I've got the thing out of the box later tonight. If they do then the switch method sounds like it would be the easiest.

What are people's thoughts about using some different lamps in place of 2 of the 4 10,000K bulbs?

 

Anyone have an answer about replacing 2 of the 10,000K bulbs with an actinic or "bluer" bulb? I've heard that actinics have all the light (in the wavelengths) that corals need and that the only reason we buy the "white" lights is for our own eyes' sake.

So, would this be fine? Sorry to be a pest about it, it's just that I want to know whether or not to stop by an LFS on my way home from work (considerable detour involved).

 

I've heard 10k are more for growth while actinic is more for looks.. but to answer your question you can change 2 12ks to actinics.. no problems..
there also aquablues, blue+, etc.. that have the actinic look but a little white growth spectrum in them..

im changing my 12k white bulb to a 14k aquablue here in a few days myself...

ATI makes a good aquablue with good par ratings..

 

Thanks! I'm going to see how the stock lamps look and then replace bulbs accordingly!

 

Hey Tangopa - sorry I missed this question +1 on night rida for me

I have a 6 tube x 80 watt T5 unit and dont use any 10k lamps
I swapped them all out for 2 x 14k, 2 x 15K and 2 x 22k (Actinic plus)

gives a nicer colour to the tank, a blueish tint but not not overly blue IMO