adjusting corals

[dviper150]

I am not sure if this is the right section to post this in but here goes.

when I had t5s, whenever I would get corals from a tank that had LED or MH over it, I would just place the corals anywhere in the tank since they were used to leds and mh. Now that I have leds, how do I acclimate corals if I get them from a tank that has a 250mh or 400mh over it? Do I start low or can I put them anywhere in the tank? My leds are china made with optics and the chips are epistar. If I get corals from a tank that has AI or other american made fixtures with crees, can i place them anywhere since it came from led or do I have to start low again?

 

[rick rottet]

in an ideal world, new corals would be placed in the same light intensity as from where they came. best way to do that?, get a hold of a PAR meter (lux meter and conversions will work in a pinch), take measurements before you move the coral and check your tank when you get the coral home and try to get as close as possible to the same PAR readings.
works best when buying locally from other hobbyists. with an LFS, you never really know how long a coral has been sitting there, where it came from originally, how is the coral going to change as it adapts, etc
without a meter, best way is to start the new corals out low (or layers of shade screen) and move them upwards (or remove some shading) every couple of weeks unless/until they show signs of being over-illuminated