Changing Fixtures and lights

[lucid]

CHanging from a 4x60w PC fixture to a 2x250w MH and 4x54w T5 fixture today and wanted to know if there is anything special i have to do, rather than just simply swapping and turning them on?

[ReeFit]

only if you have coral in your tank. if not i wouldn't worry about it. if you have coral, you need to introduce them slowly to that dramatic of an increase in light intensity.

[Rick]

Robert is correct. If you have corals then you either need to start with a short time period or use screens to block some of the light and then slowly bring the lighting up to full power. I usually start with a short lighting period and then add 30 minutes to it every other day.

[lucid]

OK, I do have a variety of corals, only zoas and soft though. Should i move them down in the tank at all? And i keep my actinics on for 10 and 12ks on for 8. What should i start my new lighting schedule at?

[ReeFit]

i would put your t5's on near the same time as the compacts were since they will be similar in power and see how they react. then add the halides for an hour or so each day until they get used to the full time frame. the halides should not have to be run more than 5-6 hours unless your trying to make some kind of mad dash of growth. if you keep your photo period down in the lower range of time your color will be better over time.

[Rick]

I only run my MH 4 or 5 hours. I run the T5's for 3 or 4 hours before and after the MH with about 1/2 an hour over overlap where all of them are on. I.E. T5's come on around 2 PM, around 3:30 PM the MH come on and half an hour later the T5's shut off. About 8:00 PM The T5's come on and half an hour later the MH shut off. The T5's turn off around 11 PM. My sump lights come on around midnight and shut off around 7 AM. Adjust accordingly to match your viewing habits. (We like to have the tank lit up in the evening)

[ReeFit]

You can get real technical like Rick, even down to controlling LED moonlighting to assist in coral spawning, I personally leave the T5's on all day, but thats because i use more actinic supplementation in my t5's more than anything.

[Rick]

You can get real technical like Rick' date=' even down to controlling LED moonlighting to assist in coral spawning, I personally leave the T5's on all day, but thats because i use more actinic supplementation in my t5's more than anything.[/quote']

 

The only reason I cut them off after the MH come on is to save a bit on power. I suspect I'll need to leave them on now though with the deeper tank.

[ReeFit]

The only reason I cut them off after the MH come on is to save a bit on power. I suspect I'll need to leave them on now though with the deeper tank.

 

I just switched to the artemis 14k 250w single ended mogul and wow is it bright and a nice crisp whitish blue, compared to the ushio 20k next to it, it makes the ushio look dull. Has a real nice color enhancing property to it as well, the fish almost glow under it. I'm still deciding if its the look i'm going to like though. i might try their 16k as well.

[Rick]

I just switched to the artemis 14k 250w single ended mogul and wow is it bright and a nice crisp whitish blue' date=' compared to the ushio 20k next to it, it makes the ushio look dull. Has a real nice color enhancing property to it as well, the fish almost glow under it. I'm still deciding if its the look i'm going to like though. i might try their 16k as well.[/quote']

 

I'll have to check that out. I like the Ushio 20k so far though.

[lucid]

How does this sound. I'll turn all 4 48" T5's on in the morning and run them all day for a total of 12 hours. Then mid-day i'll run the MH's for 4 hours.

[moovinfast]

That sounds like a long lighting period to me. I just run 250w 20k MHs over my tank and have them on for 7 hours a day. I would start with just the t5s and slowly add time with the MH. I found a huge difference switching from PCs to t5s to MH. If it were me, I would do between 7-10 hours of total lighting time. Like run the MH for 6 hours and the t5s a hour or two before and after the MH once everything adjusts.

[ReeFit]

it depends on what type of t5's you have installed. I have 2 pure actinics, 1 white actinic and one 12k daylight. i only turn on my 2 pure actinics on in the morning, at noon the white actinic and daylight come on, and then around 2 the halides come on. the halides and daylight do what is called the photo period where the corals will get the most photosynthesis going on in that light spectrum. you really only need a total of 5-6 hours of photo, then back the lights back off until night time. the pure actinics don't offer any growth light and can be on as long as you want them to be on for display purposes.

[reefnjunkie]

So running my MH's for 10 hours and my T5's for 12.5 hours would be considered an "extended" photo period-(laugh)

 

ooops

[ReeFit]

So running my MH's for 10 hours and my T5's for 12.5 hours would be considered an "extended" photo period-(laugh)

 

ooops

 

I guess the theory behind it is longer photo periods give you better growth and shorter periods enhance color nutrients in the zoanthealate? why do they have to use such difficult words to spell in this hobby...(scratch)

[lucid]

The T5's are all HO blue Actinic's. So, What is a good lighting schedule? 2 hrs of actinics in the morning and night, then 6 hours of JUST metal halides in the midday?

[ReeFit]

run your actinics as long as you want. just cut your halides down to about 4-6 hours, you will most likely play with it until you find what you like. i have systems that have different lighting cycles to accomplish different goals, so its entirely up to you, the one thing to consider is to much light can assist the growth of nuisance algae and you do want to make sure you give your corals a healthy amount of rest period as well.

[lucid]

Would it be wise to replace two of the actinics with some other sort of t5 bulb? Is 4 actinics useless?

[jgf86123]

4 actinics is just fine, with the halides, you don't need anything more than actinics.

[Rick]

The actinics are more or less for the viewer as they accentuate the colors making them pop out more. They don't really do much for the coral growth though. If you swapped in a couple of 12k T5's (or something similar) then it would.

 

10-12 hours is not really a long photo period when you consider the natural lighting the corals had in the wild.