Light Acclimation

Hey guys and gals,

I have a serious question for you all. I am currently running 4x65 watts of PC lighting. I just picked up my 6 bulb t-5 setup and was wondering if I should start with using only 4 of the bulbs for a week then add the last 2 bulbs a week later to get my corals used to the new lighting.

Any suggestions would be awsome.

TIA,

beamerhack

 

I would just cut the photoperiod down a bit, but only running 4 lamps is a good idea as well.

What type of coral are we talking about?

 

I have,

5 Zoo clusters
1 Candy cane with two heads that split last week
A large cluster of BSP
2 different Typs of shrooms
1 Xenia that is melting for unknown reasons which was my first coral who even made if threw the cycle.

 

Also,

What time schedule should I run them at?

at the moment I have my PC's on a 12 hour day with my blues coming on 1 hour before the whites then the whites going off for 1 hour before the end of the cycle.

 

Hi Beamerhack

I upgraded 3 months or so ago from 4 x 40 watt T8s to 6 x 80 watt T5s

prior to the upgrade, I was 12 on 12 off

after upgrade -
week one 6 on 18 off
week two - 8 on 16 off
week three - 10 on 14 off
week four - 12 on 12 off

no major algae issues at all - glass needs cleaning twice a week instead of once

steve

 

Cool,

Do you know how much more light I am getting with this setup? I know it is more but I wanna know how much better this lighting will be.

I know my lights at the moment are really junk. I am running a PC 260w that I bought for 100 bucks.

This new lighting system was about 400 so I hope I am getting 4 times the lighting.

 

*Raises eyebrow* .................I won't even say it...

 

Although what I WILL say is good for you for finally recognizing the problem and taking the initiative to fix it. Congratulations.

 

under the PCS you would have been limited in your choice of inhabitants
under T5s - 6 X ?? how many watts? you will have more options on what you keep - so IMO worth the 300 extra bucks you have invested

Steve

 

With the corals that you currently possess, you do not need to run your lights for that long a duration! 8 hours is plently of time for the zooxanthellae to receive the recommended amout of light required for the coral and its host zooxanthellae to thrive.
Duration, and intensity(PAR/PUR) are the key determining factors for corals and saturation of light!
Either way is effective...run a few lights for awhile, then turn on all of the bulbs for a period of time, then stagger them off again. Or you could reduce the amount of time that the lights(all of them) remain on, and then slowly add an hour or so every few days!