Acclimating new led lights

[gtp0083]

So I just replaced my two orbit loop ic lights over my IM 50 Lagoon with an AI Hydra 52 HD.

The orbit IC lights were sitting about 2" above the water. I have the Hydra sitting about 10" above the water to reduce spill over.

I have read many forums about acclimating and intensity levels but none seem to match my setup.

Tank is 18" deep. Corals very close to the surface of the water are mostly zoanthids. Frogspawn and torch about mid way maybe 9" from the surface. Acans, gsp, and a toadstool on the sand bed.

This is what I have it set at and this is only a total shot in the dark I have no clue if it's correct.

I have the acclimation cycle for 30 days with the intensities reduces by half.

Any thoughts.

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[gtp0083]

Probably should have put this in the lighting and filtration section. My bad don't want to repost.


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[gtp0083]

One more thing(I feel like I'm talking to myself haha). I have them ramp up from 1000-1200 then ramp down from 1800-2300 off completely from 2300-1000


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[Ron Reefman]

At 2am you mostly are 'talking to yourself', LOL!

I'm not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to AI fixtures (I have one of their T-shirts... does that count?).

OK, serious answer, I think you are probably OK with your current settings. Not knowing just how close the zoas are to the top of the tank, I'd recommend you just keep a close eye on them for awhile. I have some zoas at just 3" under the water surface and they are doing fine. However my Money Key Green zoas have morphed into being azure blue. My Photon V2 fixture is 10" off the water and I run higher power levels than you are (90% on both blue channels and 40% white and violet.

 

[SycoCell]

Check out the Hydra thread in the LED section. I assume you enabled the "Acclimation" mode on the AI system?

 

[gtp0083]

Thanks Ron!

Syco. I think I may have read that entire thread trying to figure out settings. It seams to be mostly guess work at this point. Thank for the heads up on that thread!


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[Pelagic_e36]

Speaking of orbit ic led's I currently have one over my 55 gallon. What was your experience with the light, and which light in your opinion is more visually appealing thus far in terms of brightness, and color? Just curious...

 

[gtp0083]

The orbit ic light was awesome no complaints. Coral grew decently well. From a color stand point I just couldn't get that "pop" of fluorescent colors from my coral. The blues on the ic's just aren't powerful enough. We would buy coral at the LFS because it was so bright and colorful. But when we would put it under our IC's the coral would never look the same.


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[Ron Reefman]

Speaking of orbit ic led's I currently have one over my 55 gallon. What was your experience with the light, and which light in your opinion is more visually appealing thus far in terms of brightness, and color? Just curious...

They are very good lights if you use them in the right way. They use 0.3 watt leds that don't penetrate the water nearly as well as everybody else's 3 watt and 5 watt leds. So it's not a bad light, it's just made for shallower tanks. Most 55g tanks are 20" tall and that is really pressing the upper limit of it's ability. I'd suggest they are OK for 16" deep tanks or less, but deeper than that and you need to be careful what corals you try to keep.