lighting acclimation & sps?

hey everyone,
i have just started getting into the more brightly colored/ expert sps like the various acros.

now i run t5s and all my frags come from MH lit tanks.

how should i go about light acclimating these corals. my new set of frags. sunset mille, oregon tort, pink mille, and green with yellow polyp bottlbrush.

1)i am starting them half way down my 24" deep tank,..good?

2)now i am sure some will need to be placed higher, but how do you tell when is the right time.

3)What would be the difference in coloration between a coral fading from too much light and the same coral fading from too little light.?



i do know other factors influence the coloration of corals, but im not looking at water parims right now as a factor cause i have another acro and some other sps/lps that have great color.

 

They are coming from under M/H to being placed under T5's ? If I'm correct then all the T5 you can give them for about 16 Hrs a day.. If they start to fade add more time to the photo period length.

 

ah tangster, maybe you should put that guy on the line lol he is a t5 lover lollol

you know thats what i thought, i started with green pocilliapora, and ora green birdsnest. monti digis, and monti cap,

all but the monti cap bleached at first,( the ora green bleached more on branches that were more exposed to light, and branches that were shaded continued to look healthy.) all have recoverd to great color after some wks of being moved to shady places.

monti danae. superman monti i got i thought needed all the light i could give it, that bleached also but still continues to grow. ive yet to move it to a lower spot.

just dont want bleach them and then wait for the color to come back again.


i cant think its water quality issues cause there is plenty of healthy corals, as well as a small encrusting acro ive had for a yr that looks great with great polyp extension.

 

always start them at the bottom of the tank and make sure they are getting flow. Then slowly raise the corals to the desired period over a couple of weeks. I normally put my new sps on the bottom for 5 days to get used to my tank parameters and then slowly raise them over a period of every couple of days per 4 inches to the desired location.
I am also running a t5 setup. Remember bulb selection is a variable based on par ratings of the bulb.

 

Do you know what lamps the corals where under ? ORA does a lot of Natural sun and or 65K bulbs for their corals , What lamps do you us for the T5 and how many are there ? The corals like the pocilliapora and birdnest do not require really super intense lighting If its not in the water or lack of acculimation causing the bleaching ? It could I guess be the lamps ? But I really don't think so . Try lowering them a it what amount of actinices are you giving them ? and what K of white do they get ? All tis being saidd I don't think its the light. But not having seen them its simply a guess .. I ran 2 sets of T5's with 4 lamps 39 watta for a yr and on a 20" deep tank they would not keep much of anything alive . just to under powered Giesmann's where used for lamps . I'll ask Craig tomorrow when I talk with him and send him this link he is the T5 Guy

 

i was using uvl 50/50's 4x54 watts on a 13 in wide tank for the past yr. recently (last 2 wks i switched to giesmanns) lol . but i think i may go back to the uvls. i like them much better.

the ora(and all my corals) came from 12k reef lux halides in my dealers tanks.


i run my lights for 12 hrs. 1.5 hrs of actinics only in the morning and at night.

flow... K3,k2, maxi 1200 on wave maker and mag 7 on scwd 2 switching outputs. with very flow friendly aquascaping.


bleaching has not happend yet to my newest corals i just want to make sure i dont bleach them out by not acclimating to the light. so im just wondering whats the diff. in coloration between a coral fading from too much light or from too little light.

will too little light brown the coral were too much will turn it brighter to the point of extreme flouresence then all white?(this is what happend to my green monti digi)

is this how it goes?

the new ones are all just small frags. so this is more testing the water to see what kind of colors/corals i can keep vibrant.

the acro i had for a yr was grown from a tiny single translucent polyp on a piece of LR from florida. only in the past 4 months has it grown to be anything reconizable, it has encrusted the small rock and it is bright green with bright greenish white polyps.in a macro shot you can see small crazy patterns in it. last 2 months it has really taken off. the success of this acro in my tank is what led me to try other acros. just a lil F.Y.I. if your wondering why im attempting harder corals.

sry for the long post! ill try to get some pics as soon as i can.

 

some pics
1)pic of acro about 8 months ago.
2) pic of the acro i have been growing. this was 4 months ago when it first started to become reconizable, ill try to get a new pic cause it has a intense green color now and has started branching off the rock.

so water cant be that bad.
440/10/1400