Acclimatizing corals to light

[Koh23]

Ok, so, this is not typical "how to", or "what should i do" question, rather conversation, opinions and thoughts about something that's puzzling me for some time....

Daily we see topic and post that sound like "i bought new fancy coral, so, i put it in tank, and then i reduce my lights, to avoid shocking corals, then i will during days/weeks slowly raising light intensity"....

I'm i only one whom this sounds soooo wrong?

I mean, we try to acclimatize coral to light, not light to coral, right?

The only two scenarios exist, ok, three, but last is so obvious and don't require any actions from us, so, let's go with two options here...

A) coral was grown in stronger light than we have
B) coral was grown in weaker light than we have

So, if it's A, then, really, we don't need to do anything. Right? Coral will receive less lights, simply place it in tank, wait some time and voila.... It will not be happy few days, but then it will accept that light level, and all ok... Not really, we already accepted fact that any change in light intensity/spectrum is a stress to corals, that's why everyone says "set your light and forget, don't change constantly".

If answer is B, then we need to acclimatize coral. So, why is "reduce light intensity" often only recommended action?

By doing that, we lower our light intensity to better suit NEW coral in system, and thus shocking all of corals that we already have, and, again, we already established that this is not good option.

So, why? Why simply don't place new coral on sand, or somewhere in shade, under shelf, cliff, under shade of some other coral that we have? No matter how strong lighting we have, there's always some places that receive lower par than the rest.

Why it's always "reduce light intensity"?

Personally, i don't touch my light, when adding new coral, its always - sandbed, partially in shade, then upwards on scape until final place.... Never fails.

Only exception is if i know for fact that corals was kept in much stronger lights than i possibly can have, then it goes straight on place where i want him.

Is there wrong or right way, why touching lights intensity that affect whole system sounds like bad idea to me?

 

[frizzayyyyreef]

New corals I always go easy on the light strength for atleast a week to see how they react ….I’ve noticed if you put a new coral on your light schedule it stresses them out majority of the times…for example I just bought a beautiful hammer coral he hated life when I tried blasting him with my usual light so I lowered it for a week now he’s able to take the stronger times of the day…,even tho you can tell he’s still not fully happy when them lights r on full throttle..another few weeks and I think he’ll be good to go just think the lfs lights don’t compare to my insanely expensive one lol

 

[Timfish]

I agree, dropping light intesity is not the thing to do. Lighting on a system once set should not be changed and corals should be acqured that prefer those conditions. Every time lighting is changed a coral has to adjust it photobiology, much better to place a coral under the lighting conditions it grew under to minimize it's aclimation to a new environment.

 

[Dburr1014]

Ok, so, this is not typical "how to", or "what should i do" question, rather conversation, opinions and thoughts about something that's puzzling me for some time....

Daily we see topic and post that sound like "i bought new fancy coral, so, i put it in tank, and then i reduce my lights, to avoid shocking corals, then i will during days/weeks slowly raising light intensity"....

I'm i only one whom this sounds soooo wrong?

I mean, we try to acclimatize coral to light, not light to coral, right?

The only two scenarios exist, ok, three, but last is so obvious and don't require any actions from us, so, let's go with two options here...

A) coral was grown in stronger light than we have
B) coral was grown in weaker light than we have

So, if it's A, then, really, we don't need to do anything. Right? Coral will receive less lights, simply place it in tank, wait some time and voila.... It will not be happy few days, but then it will accept that light level, and all ok... Not really, we already accepted fact that any change in light intensity/spectrum is a stress to corals, that's why everyone says "set your light and forget, don't change constantly".

If answer is B, then we need to acclimatize coral. So, why is "reduce light intensity" often only recommended action?

By doing that, we lower our light intensity to better suit NEW coral in system, and thus shocking all of corals that we already have, and, again, we already established that this is not good option.

So, why? Why simply don't place new coral on sand, or somewhere in shade, under shelf, cliff, under shade of some other coral that we have? No matter how strong lighting we have, there's always some places that receive lower par than the rest.

Why it's always "reduce light intensity"?

Personally, i don't touch my light, when adding new coral, its always - sandbed, partially in shade, then upwards on scape until final place.... Never fails.

Only exception is if i know for fact that corals was kept in much stronger lights than i possibly can have, then it goes straight on place where i want him.

Is there wrong or right way, why touching lights intensity that affect whole system sounds like bad idea to me?

I might have heard once or twice to reduce lights.
I'm with you, sandbed then raise.
Some people just place where they are going and that's fine. For me, I just feel more comfortable going to sandbed and up.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

The only reason I see to put coral in lower light than it is accustom to is to reduce stress. With so many corals being purchased online that require shipping, by the time the coral arrives, it has been tossed around, the temp has changed, it is being put in water that is different than what it came from, and possibly dipped in a chemical. That is stressful. Add in putting it in strong light, and it may be too much stress. Of all the items I mentioned, the only two that we can control is the chemical dip, and the amount of light the coral is put into. Why not try to reduce the stress for a few days by placing it in lower light? I agree that changing the light on the system is not the way to go.

 

[frizzayyyyreef]

Idk if it’s just me and mainly bc I have lps but when I add coral and lower the light all my corals get wayyy bigger look so much nicer …especially when I turn off the flow they get huge ….not sure if anyone noticed this lol