Lighting Transition Advice

[jupiourts]

I wondered if anyone here had any advice; I am changing my lighting system from 175 W MH to 400 W MH. Also going from 20,000 K to 14,000 K.

Any ideas on how to ease their transition I was thinking like an aclimating procedure to new lights... I know Harry spoke about making the same ligthing change on his display tank?

Any Ideas?
THank you all in advance for your help!

 

[wpecoul]

I would opt for multiple layers of fiberglass window screening over the tank. Every 4-5 days, remove one. Given that you are going way up on wattage and relative PAR (20KK to 14KK would be a change you'd want to acclimate even without the wattage jump), I'd probably start with about 6-8 layers and work it out over about a month.

What kinds of corals do you already have?

 

[jupiourts]

I have a large frogspawn as a centerpiece, 1 acan, 2 large colonies of star polys, several ricordea mushrooms and watermellon mushrooms, some kenya tree and xenia, and a zooanthid variety. Nothing extremely delicate but I still wantes to be careful.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I second woecoul's opinion.

Tomoko

 

[wpecoul]

Wow - how deep is your tank, and are you upgrading because you want to keep SPS corals? 400W MH is a lot of light for those that you mentioned.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I would recommend that you look into a good reflectors such as Lumen bright, Lumen Max or Luminarc.

Take a look at Dr. Sanjay Joshi's article on the newer reflectors. He told me in Nashville that I should be able to use lower wattage MH bulbs. I currently use two 250W on my 120. Sanjay said that I should be able to get the same amount of light with 175's and Lumen Bright, which would give me a good energy saving. If you have a tall enough canopy, you should try Lumen Bright reflectors with your 175W first. If that is not enough, you can upgrade the bulbs and a ballast to 250W.

Tomoko

 

[8BALL_99]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14440963#post14440963 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wpecoul
Wow - how deep is your tank, and are you upgrading because you want to keep SPS corals? 400W MH is a lot of light for those that you mentioned.

I really have to agree here. Some of that stuff you listed won't even like that much light. If this is a tall tank then go for it. But if its not you might want to look at 250s

 

[Tomoko Schum]

If you intend to keep primarily just those type of corals that you listed, LPS and softies, then, you can just stick to 250 or less.

Would you mind telling us why you wish to change your light? Is it because you would like to add a lot of light demanding SPS's? Is it because your corals don't seem to be growing fast enough under the current set up?