appropriate and ideal corals for leds plus acclimation

[reefrefresh]

I have a 65 gallon reef tank which currently houses about 50 pounds of live rock, a two inch sandbed and about 5 blue leg hermits, 3 emerald crabs, various snails. I watched the tank cycle thru to nitrites then well now it has about 10 ppm nitrate. My main question is about corals. I am not interested in the sps, mainly I would like a mixed reef with options like xenia, anthelia, polyps, mushrooms, maybe frog spawn or bubble coral. Now they will be acclimating from the dealers tank, probably the LFS. However they don't use leds on their tanks, even though they highly recommend them. So how do I properly adjust the lighting on my kessil 160s? They are dimmable but how do you know how much to dim? Or how long should the lights run everyday? And finally are there some corals that just never seem to adjust to leds that I should just avoid? Or any that just blossom under leds? Finally ate there any good online vendors that sell corals that are already used to led? Or am I seriously stressing a nonstressful event?

 

[texdoc77]

Many here have more experience, but I cannot think of any softies or LPS that just don't grow under LED's, especially nice LED's like a Kessil. As long as the PAR is right, the water parameters and flow will determine what grows.

As far as acclimation there are several guides, but you will be fine introducing them to the tank in the evening with the lights off and then running them at an increasingly higher percentage over the next several days. Once you have the lights as bright as you usually have them or want them, gradually start moving the corals that have higher light requirements (LPS) up the rock work until they find a place they start to really bloom. Then make sure your water flow is optimal. You can permanently attach them at this point or wedge the stony skeletons into the rock work. I have done both with equally good success, but something stony with a thin stalk might best be glued down.

I think you are mildly over stressing, but that is better than under stressing and killing stuff.

 

[Ron Reefman]

It's not a non-stressful event, but I think you are being a bit overly cautious.

When you get new corals, just have room in the bottom of your tank and start them down there. After a few days or a week, if they are doing OK you can move them up higher. The loss of PAR from the surface of the water to the sand in a 24" deep tank is pretty dramatic, so if you want a coral up high, take your time getting it there. But softies and zoas are very adaptable to gradual changes in light. And don't be surprised if some zoas morph (change colors) if they get too little or too much light. I had some plain green zoas that turned a very pretty azure blue because they were on a frag rack higher in the water and getting a lot more light than when I got them.