Lighting upgrade ??????

[Emoney]

Im upgrading my lighting to 3 250w 14k phoenix with a blue wave 3 and 7 running them....my question is regard to the " break in period"..I dont have much room to raise my lights ( maybe 3")...so i was wondering what everyone else has done....was told i could cut back on the photo period and slowly increase...ANyinfo would be great

 

[ca2or]

I cut my time back to 4 hours then started a gradual build meaning 2 days at 4 hours then one at 4 1/2 then 2 days at 5 hours and one at 5 1/2 and so on .

 

[gilmour01]

what were you running before? how high could the light be raised off of the water? i know you said you could raise it 3", but i'm curious how high above the water that would put it.

 

[Emoney]

i was running 3 250w 10k's on standard outer orbit ballasts...my light is right around 12-14" off water...guessin i could get the close to 17-18"

 

[gilmour01]

i wouldnt worry about it. going from 3 10k to 3 14k shouldnt be an issue even with different ballast imo. just watch for any signs of stress from your corals, but i'd venture to guess it will be a non-issue.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

When i switched from PC's to Halides, i used some patio screens to partially block the light...i cut 4 or 5 pieces of the screen and laid it across my lid and over a few days/weeks i removed one screen at a time until all gone...everything seemed to be acclimated pretty well doing it this way....just another idea.

 

[Ike]

Layers of screening is the best way to do it. Just because you're going from 10k to 14k bulbs doesn't mean that the 14k can't have a lot mkore intensity, so be careful... Also, cutting down on photoperiod isn't a very effective way to acclimate corals to new lighting. If a coral is getting exposed to too much light it'll do damage quickly, so it doesn't really matter if it's getting too much light for 4 or 8 hours...

 

[Emoney]

Thanks for all the help...I think im gonna try the screen thing along with raising my lights as hig as i can.....