new light comes tomorrow got some ?'s

[sjm1978]

ok my new sunpod 150w hqi light fixture will be here tomorrow hopefully in one piece since UPS is delivering it. i posted a while back about using something on the tank to acclimate my corals to the new light but i cant find it. im going from 80w PC to 150w HQI Mh should i use eggcrate or anything over the tank or will my corals be fine with me just adding the new light to the tank with no light diffuser?

 

[Reefdaddy1]

Just shorten you Lighting period, Its the easiest and cheapest way to do it. When I went from VHO to MH HQI I just shortened the Light period and gradually increased it over time. Should work for you well.

 

[sjm1978]

so if i run my light 9 hours normally should i run the new light 5-6 hours and how much do i increase 30 mins or 1 hour everyday or every other day?

 

[hermanx7]

When I did it I let it run for about a week befor changing the time by an hour until I got to the right amount of time. I have heard of people using several layers of screen material and taking one piece away at a time.

Thomas

 

[sjm1978]

i have eggcrate and fibeglass window screen the screen stuff i have is real black sorta like double screen. maybe ill put eggcrate and then 2-3 layers of the window screen i have and remove one layer per week. do you guys think i should do that or maybe just eggcrate by itself and lower my lighting time?

 

[sjm1978]

ok i just recived my new light. i tested it to make sure everything works and it does. it also came with the hanging kit i thought that cost extra but it was in the box. i might hang it instead i just need to make sure theres studs in the ceiling above my tank im not gonna trust drywall holding this fixture as its kinda heavy. if i do hang it ill start out high and lower it little by little would this also work instead of using eggcrate etc?

 

[ADA33]

Yes it would work but it seems easier just to use egg crate for a couple of weeks. That is what i did on mine.
Basically cut my photo period down for a week with eggcrate. Then uped the photo period the next week with the egg crate on. then took the eggcrate off on the 3rd week with full photo period. But that was with going from pc's to 2 400w mh.

 

[sjm1978]

ok ill use eggcrate and reduce photo period. if i cant hang the light from the ceiling ill make something that sits behind the tank stand and comes over the tank to hang the light from. i would like the light hung so i can adjust how high or low i want it.

 

[sjm1978]

ok my new light is on the tank. i put eggcrate and 1 piece of window screen to get it pretty close to the light that was on the tank. ill take the piece of screen off in one week and then the eggcrate one week after that. the light makes my tank look amazing love the shimmer effect also my corals opened up alot faster. the temp did go up from 80.1 to 81.0 but we did have the heater in our house running at the time. i have 2 vantec stealth 60mm fans on the tank i turned them on and about 5 minutes later it was back down to 80.1 and hasent raised since. im thinking of putting the fans on a timer to turn on about every hour and run for 30 mins to 1 hour during the light cycle.