Acclimating coral to leds

[top shelf]

I will be receiving my new 120w maxspect razor 16k tomorrow and I'm trying to get an idea of what intensity and schedule I should run it at to start. My current light is a 24in 4 bulb t5ho. I have been researching like mad but keep getting conflicting info on the subject.

Some say run whites for 4 hrs and add an hr once a week till you reach desired times and run blue 2hrs before and 2 after. However they dont mention if the fixture is dimmable or not so that would makes sense.

Then I've read people are running a normal schedule with whites maxing at x% and blues maxing at x% for a few hrs then ramping back down.

This is what I had in mind: ( A is whites B is blues)
7:00am- A:0 B:1%
11:00am- A:15% B:20%
1:00pm- A:25% B:30%
4:00pm- A:25% B:30%
7:00pm- A:15% B:20%
9:00pm- A:0% B:1%

The current set up the actinics run 8am-8pm, the whites 9am-6pm

All live stock are below in my signature and the tank is 30x12x12.
Thank you in advance to any and all who can help.

 

[Scorpius]

Whatever you think is good is probably too fast. LED's are very bright and seem dim to our eyes. Take it super slow.

 

[top shelf]

Whatever you think is good is probably too fast. LED's are very bright and seem dim to our eyes. Take it super slow.

Hence why I am asking for help from those that have or had LEDs and why I would do it at $25% max whites and %30 max values to start.

 

[toothybugs]

I'm subscribing to this because I'm in the same boat - I get my BML strips maybe next week and have a 4x39W fixture over my 40B.

I was thinking I would ramp up to 15% each Blues and Whites for the first week, 20 the second, etc until I don't see corals reaching for the light or maybe just starting to recoil and scaling back a tad.

 

[SGT_York]

I went from 175 MH's to reefbreeders at 50% and fried them. (alive and extended but tops are white)

Short of getting a PAR meter it's best guess. Your numbers seem reasonable, but I've not gotten his one right yet. Good luck. If they start to loose color reduce the intensity.

 

[top shelf]

I agree a par meter is the way to go but right now that would be a luxury item. I'm just going off a schedule I found from searching and the person had same tank size and similar 4 bulb fixture and people said it should be fine and to keep an eye on them and adjust accordingly. I might just start with a ramp to 20% max whites and 25% max blues, its easier to go up then down IMO.

I dont have a ton of coral and most are on the bottom. My nems are what worry me the most, they are both doing very well and in great spots. I'd hate to starve them of light or bleach them so they move.
Thank you for your help, when I get them I will do a new thread and track progress over a week or so.

 

[top shelf]

So for anyone that was following along on this one I have had the system now for about 3 days and I started with the following light schedule and times.

Time
7:00am-A:0% B:1%
9:00am-A:15% B:20%
12:00pm-A:25% B:30%
4:00pm-A:25% B:30%
7:00pm-A:15% B:20%
9:00pm-A:0% B:1%

I noticed with this schedule my zoas about 3in off the sand bed had started reaching for light so I added 5% more to the max on blues. Other than that everything is looking great and doing well so far no bleaching.

 

[Spinelessspade]

Subscribed for future use

 

[jbvdhp]

Acclimating coral to leds

I can give you my experience with leds. They're the full spectrum Chinese LEDs btw...

When I first began, both units, dimmable, ran at 20% white and 30% blue. Each week and week a half i moved the blues up 10%. I now am at 100% blues and only 30-40% whites. I run the Blues from 2:30-12 and the white from only 4:30-8:30.

One of my montis hated it as it came from MH and then browned out and bleached at 100% blues. I had to turn them all down. Then increase them again.

Now it's thriving in the tank. Nems love it, zoas love it, LPS love it, other monties love it. I have a Joe the Coral that browned out in a QT tank and within about 1.5-2 weeks, some blue is starting to come back.

So start em out slowly for sure.

I didn't know they have the programmable chinese ones too, but if had to buy them again I would buy the programmable ones for sure- maybe start off the blue channels slowly at 11 am and ramp them up throughout the day.

 

[top shelf]

Thank you, that was always my biggest worry either bleaching or not enough. I figured given in the last 2 days my zoas started reaching and being they require the least amount of light in the tank I didn't have it up enough. My thought was add about 5% to each channel every few days till my zoas return to normal, that is given everything else is happy as well then I should be in a position were I can add 10% at time till I reach either max on the fixture or things start becoming unhappy. Any thought on that strategy, to me it makes sense lol