my new light is here!!!!!!!

What exactly is the screen approach? Why do you need to do light acclimation? If I were to just go straight to the full time of lighting would it fry my corals?

 

LCP136

its not a case of frying corals, although if the upgrade was from tubes to MH then that would be a concern

the screen approach involves putting a layer or several layers of for example a tinted acrylic or even a fine plastic mesh between the lights and the tank - and then 1 filter is moved each week

I feel this method is very well suited if you are upgrading to halides

the reason that I gradually phased in my new lights was simply to avoid any algae issues
any changei in lighting if not controlled has the potential to cause blooms ?( depends on nutrient levels also)

the reason I use either shorter light period or using 4 of the 6 lamps options is simply

to turn on 6 lights and filter out the light from 2 of them means you pay for electricity you dont want to be using anyway

Steve

 

So if I were to just put it on the full cycle the worst that would happen would be bad algae?

 

IMO
some corals may go into a light shock also - so it is best the gently increase light output

you dont always get bad algae either, nutrient levels coupled with Algae spores will decide if the light increase results in bad algae

Steve

 

I did a light upgrade... I essentially followed Steve's schedule, more or less.


The only thing I would add (which is starting to be covered now) is that if you see an outbreak of algea that is a surprise, then I would stretch the light acclimation out (i.e. skip a week of adding an extra hour).

In the end, I had to wait 2 weeks between increases in times due to LHA until I reached the end point of 12 hrs actinics and 10 hours 10k's. And then I was getting LHA again, so I cut that down to 12 hours actinics 8 hours 10k's and now all is happy.

 

Hi Peredhil - just to clarify , You followed a schedule simlar to Steve's and not Steve's schedule , I cant take credit for creating it, I followed advice remembered from years ago, when I upgraded this time.

Steve