matty Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 A little background. I recently moved all of the livestock from my 10g to a 40 breeder and went from a par38 LED bulb to a 4x39w T-5 fixture running all ATI bulbs (2 blue+, 1 coral+, 1 fiji purple). The fixture has a row of 15 1 watt led's built into the center. I just ordered the 12x3watt rapid led kit to replace the 1 watt led's as they don't add much except color to the tank. My question is this: Will installing 12x3watt led's in addition to the 4 T-5 bulbs require me to acclimate the corals to the extra light? Is this not enough additional light to worry about? I currently have a mix of softies, a couple sps, 1 maxima clam, flame algae, and a frogspawn colony. My plan is to have the blue+ bulbs come on first, the coral+ and fiji second, and the led's last for a total of 10 hours with the reverse happening when the lights go off for the night. The led's are 6xroyal blue and 6x cool white and are not dimmable. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hewey McLovit Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 The sales guys at Rapid Led should be able to answer that question, but if it was me i would certainly acclimate them. How high of you water does the fixture sit? I would be concerned with the corals within 12-16" of the LEDs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty Posted September 18, 2012 Author Share Posted September 18, 2012 The fixture sits 4 inches off the water. The highest corals and clam are about 6-8" under the water line. I can move the higher corals and clam down closer to the sand bed maybe? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Just put them on a seperate timer and start running them less initially and add hours as things aclimate. I take it you didn't buy the dimmable kit? I'd start with like 4 hours a day and work your way up to run with your T5's. You could also start off leaving optics off and eventually add them later when things are adjusted more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty Posted September 18, 2012 Author Share Posted September 18, 2012 Just put them on a seperate timer and start running them less initially and add hours as things aclimate. I take it you didn't buy the dimmable kit? I'd start with like 4 hours a day and work your way up to run with your T5's. You could also start off leaving optics off and eventually add them later when things are adjusted more. No not dimmable. I did order them with 80 degree optics for the most spread but I may not use them at all, the fixture has a splash shield. I am just not sure how they will sit yet in the holes in the fixture the current leds shine through. Running them for shorter times at first would probably be the best as I don't have any way to raise the fixture. What about using screen and pulling a sheet off every few days? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 No not dimmable. I did order them with 80 degree optics for the most spread but I may not use them at all' date=' the fixture has a splash shield. I am just not sure how they will sit yet in the holes in the fixture the current leds shine through. Running them for shorter times at first would probably be the best as I don't have any way to raise the fixture. What about using screen and pulling a sheet off every few days?[/quote'] Thats another popular method, but I highly doubt things will take very long to adjust, i'd just save the hassle and slowly ramp up your run time. When I swapped to an LED fixture I only had some monticap bleach out a bit, everything else was fine, SPS, softies, Clam, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matty Posted September 18, 2012 Author Share Posted September 18, 2012 Thats another popular method' date=' but I highly doubt things will take very long to adjust, i'd just save the hassle and slowly ramp up your run time. When I swapped to an LED fixture I only had some monticap bleach out a bit, everything else was fine, SPS, softies, Clam, etc.[/quote'] Nice, I will try that. Don't want to spend the money for screen if I don't have to. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoobtoSalt Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Nice' date=' I will try that. Don't want to spend the money for screen if I don't have to. Thanks.[/quote'] Egg crate would be better then screen if you needed it. Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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