Acclimation process for going from 20000k to 10000k MH bulbs

[Lousybreed]

Hello everyone, looking for some advice on this topic. @Battlecorals and @Dana Riddle as they seem to be big advocates of "whiter" lighting for our tanks. I realized I had become obsessed by the blue tank movement.....My 250 is currently lit by 2x250W 20k Radions, 2xATI actinic T5, 2xATI blue+, and a 48" reefbrite XHO LED strip. After reading more and more on the lower spectrum lighting and the possible benefits.....I was thinking. I could still have the blue look at night for viewing purposes with my LED and T-5 combos......but during mid day I could burn some 10k metal halide bulbs to get more of the full spectrum to my corals.

BUT.....I do not want to fry my corals. I was thinking to switch from 20k to 10k MH bulbs and reduce photoperiod considerably on the metal halide lights. Like go to 3 hrs....and ramp 30 minutes twice a week until I am back at my 7 hr photoperiod for the halides........thoughts? Anyone has done this recently? BTW I have a SPS heavy "mixed" reef......

 

[DeniseAndy]

I also run MH and T5 lighting. I would think the 20k radions would have enough variation in spectrum to get the white needed. However, as any change in bulb can have effects, so do it gradually. I would do as you said. Sounds slow enough to me.

When I change my bulbs, I will add screens to the tank and take them away over a week or so to bring corals up. I have done this when having an sps dominated tank.

 

[mcarroll]

Best to find what you like and stick with it. If anything, maybe simplify the system down to JUST radiums, or JUST leds. Otherwise I say stay the course with what you have.

2¢

 

[Dana Riddle]

Hello everyone, looking for some advice on this topic. @Battlecorals and @Dana Riddle as they seem to be big advocates of "whiter" lighting for our tanks. I realized I had become obsessed by the blue tank movement.....My 250 is currently lit by 2x250W 20k Radions, 2xATI actinic T5, 2xATI blue+, and a 48" reefbrite XHO LED strip. After reading more and more on the lower spectrum lighting and the possible benefits.....I was thinking. I could still have the blue look at night for viewing purposes with my LED and T-5 combos......but during mid day I could burn some 10k metal halide bulbs to get more of the full spectrum to my corals.

BUT.....I do not want to fry my corals. I was thinking to switch from 20k to 10k MH bulbs and reduce photoperiod considerably on the metal halide lights. Like go to 3 hrs....and ramp 30 minutes twice a week until I am back at my 7 hr photoperiod for the halides........thoughts? Anyone has done this recently? BTW I have a SPS heavy "mixed" reef......

When I managed the invertebrate section of Aquatic Wildlife, we would often buy out tanks from people getting out of the hobby. We got a bunch of Acropora and other specimens that were grown under just about any lighting system available at that time. We did not lose even one and this is how we did it. We took PAR readings for each specimen and transferred them to our vats, making sure we matched PAR. Spectrum didn't seem to make any difference. Bear in mind that our metal halides were shielded to remove UV.

 

[jda]

That probably is pretty blue with Actinic and B+ on there too. You can also put a daylight T5 bulb in there to whiten it up a bit. GE 6500k can bring out some nice colors in corals.

Which 10k did you pick? XM? Hamilton? You can use the reefs.com/lighting if you need PPFD measurement. I can do it if you let me know which ballasts you are using and which 10k bulbs you are thinking about.

 

[jda]

Bear in mind that our metal halides were shielded to remove UV.

Which part of UV were you filtering out? The glass in the bulbs for the SE variety and the fixture glass for DE get rid of all of the UVB and UVA up to about 350nm. Did you use additional glass on SE bulbs?

 

[Dana Riddle]

Which part of UV were you filtering out? The glass in the bulbs for the SE variety and the fixture glass for DE get rid of all of the UVB and UVA up to about 350nm. Did you use additional glass on SE bulbs?

I didn't have a spectrometer at the time, but am of the belief that the polycarbonate lens had a cutoff at about 400nm. I do have some spectrometer data showing UV into the UV-C range (albeit small spikes) from DE lamps. This info is in the old OOIBase32 files and are not supported in later Ocean Optics software. I'll have to download that old software to view those files, something I'll definitely do once back from MACNA. More later.

 

[Reefcowboy]

I run almost same set up as you, with 2x250w radiums, ATI blues+’s and actinics with 2x 48”blue led strips(orphek).

Growth and color I get from Radiums is absolutely insane. I wonder why you would like to change anything?

I loved the look I got when running 14k Phoenix bulbs because the overall tank look was nice and crisp but corals didnt grow like they do under radiums....

I would love to hear more from your experience and am not by any means discrediting benefits of “fuller spectrum” bulbs.
At the same time we see tanks like Jason Fox’s 400 gal cube, with all lighting only comming from blue bulbs and colors/growth are a 10 out of 10.

 

[A. grandis]

I didn't have a spectrometer at the time, but am of the belief that the polycarbonate lens had a cutoff at about 400nm. I do have some spectrometer data showing UV into the UV-C range (albeit small spikes) from DE lamps. This info is in the old OOIBase32 files and are not supported in later Ocean Optics software. I'll have to download that old software to view those files, something I'll definitely do once back from MACNA. More later.

Thanks for sharing that. Interesting! Waiting for the files as well.