New Lighting: How to avoid Light Shock

[Fishindude88]

I decided to use my 48" T5 light I picked up for my new project on my holding tank since it was being lit with PCs (even though I have about a foot of overhang on each side!). Some of my zoanthids were stretching nearly all the way up on a frag rack so I thought this would be a good idea for a few months.
How do I avoid light shock? How long should I keep daylights and actinic on for? Upgrade was from 96 watt daylight and actinic PC to 2x 55 watt daylight and actinic T5.

Thanks!

 

[650-IS350]

Put a couple Eggcrate light diffusers under your new lighting 3 layer or so, after a week or 2 take off 1 layer, then every other week take off another. and so on.

Or if you have it hanging, hang it real high, then slowly lower it a couple inches a week till you have it at the level you want.

 

[Fishindude88]

Thanks, I just so happen to have some extra eggcrate too! Does this mean I can run a regular daylight schedule with this method?

 

[650-IS350]

I don't see why not, you can even do a couple bulbs at first then start adding a couple more.

 

[Fishindude88]

Alrighty, thanks for the help! I have some eggcrate on there now. What a difference, the stalks went back down within a half hour!

 

[650-IS350]

Some reach cause of light starvation some just do it for the hell of it I guess. just like mushrooming. Like on my 2nd vid of my frag tank you see all the polyps short but the Devils Armour stretching like 2" , beats me cause the colors are good, pollyp looks healthy.

 

[Fishindude88]

I suppose if they are doing healthy then there is no need to worry. I thought mine was a light issue because my actinic bulb was old and I run actinic only for the majority of my light cycle, and my monti caps were starting to pale and bleach along the edges.

 

[650-IS350]

So NO daylight bulbs ?

 

[Fishindude88]

I do use daylight, but only for about 4-5 hours. This is because my pH rises above desirable levels.

 

[manhorsedog]

not having the daylights on long can have great effects, hope it is working well for you. On another note sometimes allowing your tank to just "do its thing" can be a good thing. Same goes for us, the more change we encounter the more adaptable we become.

 

[Fishindude88]

I hear the "just do its thing" approach. Some of my worst mistakes come when not doing this and acting when I should've just let it go.

On the actinic, I am hoping to lower daylight time even more now that I have the T5 bulbs. So far so good

 

[650-IS350]

I used to run 8 Bulb T5s, 4 daylights and 2 420 and 2 460s and ran the days for 6hrs and attinics for 8hrs NEVER had problems and actually had great growth for all corals. I had to constantly prune.

 

[Fishindude88]

I would ideally like to get to that point someday with the pruning. I am hoping it is just the size of my tank that is the problem and come upgrade time the pH will be much more stable. How big was this tank?

 

[650-IS350]

100 GAL