RE: Light Acclimation -MH to T-5-

[bayareaquarist]

RE: Light Acclimation -MH to T-5-

So Im going to be adding a 660 with 4 t-5's this weekend to an existing 250w MH over my 55g...Any advice as to acclimating my corals to the additional light? Idealy i would like to run the MH for only 3-4 hrs a day...

 

[dots]

Keep your normal schedule, and add the lights starting at 2-3 hours per day, upping it a little each week, while backing down the others.

Caveat: There is no set rule for this, you can add screen to it, or raise the lighting to extend the hours right off. Getting your MH's down to 2-3 hours is an admirable goal in energy and heat reduction, but along with the previous, the corals will tell you what they want based on coloration and growth.

With that said, when observe the corals many times daily when acclimating and determine the effects, and back it off if too much. I accidently left my Actinics on for 24hours and bleached my Blue Matrix recently while working on the tank late........its been a few weeks and its normal coloring is returning.

Bleaching isn't that "bad" compared to other problems, and is pretty recoverable........In fact, most "pastel" looking SPS tanks are really starved and bleached to a certain extent. How many people have had "white" anenome for months without worrying?

The fact that you are concerned about it, means you shouldn't have any problems......if you weren't the thread would have been titled "Why are all my corals bleached, I have no idea?"

I think you will be fine.

 

[Justin74]

I think the biggest misconception to photo acclimation is the reduced photo scheduling. When talking about bleaching and light there is a point of measurement that holds these two hand in hand, ie., a corals 'saturation point'. Think of it in numbers, for ex:

lets say a corals saturation point for photo synthesis is 75. As of now your MH kicks out lets say 60. The T5's will increase the number lets say by 25. To put these in combo would put the total at 85. Doing this by our example would put the light 10 pts beyond it's saturation point... Photo shock occurs, because we've exceeded its saturation point, and doing so so quickly it will take the coral some time to acclimate and increase its saturation point to accomodate for the light. That is once it's recovered from the photo shock.

Now, if you either raise the lights or use a screen upon introduction. Your only elevating the lights in incraments allowing time for the coral to acclimate without photoshock.

Long story short, if 'x' gives you a sunburn. Doesnt matter if your under it only 4 or even 2 hours, your still gonna get burnt. I beleive Anthony Calfo touched on this subject as well, IIRC in his book of coral propegation.

Obviously I would opt for the screen method, however it isnt always easy or possible sometimes. You also need to take into consideration the IC ballast. If your using the 39w it will overdrive it to 60w or the 54w bulb it will overdrive it to 80w, so on and so on. So photo acclimation will be a very real thing when introducing these lights Good luck!


-Justin

 

[xia]

IME screens work better than reduced light period. You can also borrow used bulbs and slowly increase number of bulbs turned on.

 

[bayareaquarist]

Wow Awesome Guys~! TANKS Dots and Justin~!

Justin: Nice analogy BTW~!

I havent read too much about the screen method and its very easy for me to just prop up the canopy. So I'll probably use the prop method. I will be adding 4 21w bulbs on the 660 so will those watts increase by about half too??

 

[Justin74]

21w? Do you mean 24w? Or are they a normal output T5?
I cant recall how much they get overdriven, but if I recall correctly they had the highest overdriven ratio of them all. I know they will be overdriven but by how much, sorry I cant say, but the info is out there.

-Justin

 

[bayareaquarist]

They are 36" 21w Coralife Actinics...

 

[Justin74]

Okay, then ya there NO. Dont know the specific range they would provide, but would be safe to say the IC ballast would push it at least 10-15w higher in output; if not more.

-Justin

 

[Justin74]

Btw, you could probably even get specifics on the Ice Cap forum.

-Justin

 

[bayareaquarist]

Fair enough~! Thanks~!

 

[dots]

Your right Justin, it is more about intensity. I don't know if its been researched or not, but may be a good question for Sanjay regarding this topic as there is constantly new infromation being discovered.

Isn't the saturation point, a product of quality, quantity, and duration?

The question that I was curious is how long from that saturation point, is it "reset" and lighting can resume?

If the saturation point is a product, then one could either decrease intensity (shading) or duration (photoperiod) of the lights.

Hence why either method could work. The key would be finding a minimum saturation point that is safe for all specie for a general guideline.

 

[Justin74]

Both methods can work depending on the intensity were talking about up to a point. . And every coral comes with a different point at which it's apex of maximum photosynthetic potential is reached.

But intesity can over rule duration. A stronger analogy would be; Standing 10ft from the sun you will recieve 100% useable quality light, but will you last longer than a millisecond to witness it?
Now lets say, God hit the speed shutter at one millionth of a sec to allow you not to fry standing that close to the sun, what about the other 23 hours and 59 minutes and 59.9999 seconds of no sun?

There obviously is formula that can work using certain intensities for certain durations otherwise 90% of us all would be very hip to light acclimation and bleaching Just wanted to mention those levels can be easily scewed depending on the light used and the intensity respective to them, moreso T5 HO when paired with IC reflectors and IC ballast. And with NO I highly doubt there will be any issues, and honestly probably would not bother with light acllimation if just actinic supplementation was being added

-Justin

 

[dots]

I'm picking up with what you are putting down, I just didn't want us to be sounding like that is the only factor, and was pondering the cycle time after the saturation point so that lighting may resume, thus turning off and on a few times a day as I have heard people doing in the past. Just waving my nerd flag a little, sorry I tangled you into it.

Just actinics effecting them, depends.....like I said I bleached my blue matrix a couple of weeks ago just leaving mine on.......but agree, the risk of loss is minimal.

Besides, caring for a couple of bleached pieces is a good skill to have.......win win situation either way if you ask me....

 

[Justin74]

Ya, no not at all dots It's a fact more people use the duration method and is why I was waiving my mt.Geekmore banner:wave:
Ya the saturation point is like the Tootsie Roll tootsie pop, no one knows how many licks it takes to get to the center Well, they do now apparently :lol2: but thats getting off topic

-Justin

 

[dots]

Wasn't it a group of students from MIT that made the counter?

 

[Justin74]

I believe so

-Justin