Lighting Change - Deresa

[lanamarks]

I am about to upgrade my lighting from 175W to 400W. I sold off most of my remaining LPS and am going SPS/Clam/Zoa.

I moved my derasa directly under the 175W a few days ago and part of his matle seems light like he might be getting bleached.

Question is - the 400 will probably be way too strong. With the 400 will he do better at the far end of the tank with a wall that blocks part of the light from directly hitting him.

He is setting at the bottom (about 28") right now. He has looked fine for almost a year not being under the light.

Advice?

 

[Electrobes]

Yeah i would acclimate him, and prob the rest fo your corals. Putting him away from the directness of the light is definately a good idea. Also remember that light being reflected off the glass definately reaches corals too. Good luck

 

[lanamarks]

Do you think he would ever acclimate to the 400W directly or just keep him in the shade?

 

[Electrobes]

sure the clam could definitely acclimate tot hat power, but you definitely would have to be patient. Might not be a bad idea anyway to acclimate all of them slowly

 

[thepudge]

Just upgraded my derasa from 130w PCs to 250 watt MH, and he was very touchy about it, gaping when I turned on the lights and acting stressed. I acclimated him slowly over a week by putting screen over the tank and reducing the photoperiod, and he's slowly starting to come around.

 

[lanamarks]

I'm not sure what exactly to do so I guess I'll just try and go slow.

 

[JR719]

The sudden change, or intesity of the light more than likely has stressed it a little. Keep the photoperiod fairly short and slowing increasing. Should do fine given the rest of the parameters are in check. If the clam is under 3" you may want to target feed it once in a while.

 

[dvmsn]

DEFINATELY ramp them up slowly. I would reccomend maybye 3-4 hours the first day and and add an hour a day until you get up to full steam. I lost several clams once while only adding a new bulb! Clams seem to be the most sensative, but I would definately recommend this for all corals.

 

[lanamarks]

Okay - I will shorten my photo period some then. I moved the clam last night to a spot not directly below the bulb so hopefully that will help. I think I will try and move the rocks some so that he can be returned to his old place since he was obviously pretty happy there.

He can recover, right? He looks really stressed right now, gaping and not extending his mantle as far as he used to (could this be a flow issue?) the blue edge of his mantle has also faded into light brown. All of the brown has faded with a nasty white bleached area in the center.

Also - I know he is stressed out because of the light but how can I tell if some of that stress is due to the flow? Being in a different spot he might be getting more flow than he used to. I have a Mag 9.5 return and a Tunze 1600pgh Stream in my tank.