T5 to Sol: how to acclimate my tank

Hi guys,

I'm switching from 24" T5s to a Sol blue and was curious how I should go about acclimating my corals. Any recommendations on how I should go about it or initial light levels and weekly increases would be greatly appreciated.

Here's the tank as it is now:




I'm going to ask a local reefer/photographer buddy to come by and shoot the tank with T5s over it and 6 months from now do it again to see what the coloration differences are. Really curious to see how it all works out...

Thanks!

Jason

 

i would hang it pretty high to start. then if all looks good in a few weeks lower it a few inches every week or 2. looks are deceiving with the leds. they pack a serious punch even from pretty far away.

 

I totally agree with what DBO said. If you are unable to hang them high then i would run the whites for an hour and after a week raise the time another hour until you run them at the length you want.

 

...Or, you could hang it where you want it to be and slowly raise the intensity weekly. The AI Sol Controller unit will allow you to raise each color diode individually for intensity and perfect aesthetic color blend. Reducing the photo period could be detrimental due to the shock that would cause.

EDIT: Borrowing a PAR meter from a local club could be vital in perfect acclimation as well. If you can get one, take readings all over with the T5's, then setup the Sol and repeat...adjust intensity if necessary until you get numbers similar in location to your T5's.

 

Thanks guys - I'll probably go the direction FOD described. I'll see if any of the local guys have a par meter and take it from there.

Thanks!

 

I'm glad someone brought this up. I am going from my 4 bulb t5 tek to 2 sol blue units on my 75 gallon. I am using my tek with the tek stands so I guess I am about 5-6 inches from the surface. I think I will have to go about double that height since I would be running them length wise versus width as AI suggests.

Is the indicator of too much light brown algae or some sort of bleaching?

I like the suggestions about the height of the fixture itself. I think if I were tackling this issue I would play with the intensity of the lighting first. It sounds difficult to try to adjust both at the same time.