Switching from LED to metal halide / T5 - Acclimation tips?

[jd-woodlands]

Getting ready to switch from LED to MH/T5 and was wondering if anyone has any acclimation tips or a process lined out?

Currently have about 400 par at the top and 120 par at the bottom in my tank. Tank is fairly shallow at 15” (less including sand). Measured using the apogee LED par meter.

New fixture is a 36” Hamilton Cebu Sun 2x 175watt MH 20k and 4 x 39 watt T5.

SPS and zoas only, no softies.

Any help would be appreciated, I don’t want to nuke my SPS!

 

[Jay Norris]

Getting ready to switch from LED to MH/T5 and was wondering if anyone has any acclimation tips or a process lined out?

Currently have about 400 par at the top and 120 par at the bottom in my tank. Tank is fairly shallow at 15” (less including sand). Measured using the apogee LED par meter.

New fixture is a 36” Hamilton Cebu Sun 2x 175watt MH 20k and 4 x 39 watt T5.

SPS and zoas only, no softies.

Any help would be appreciated, I don’t want to nuke my SPS!

I don't think you will need to do any acclimation is needed, if you have good LED's then they were probably stronger then the lights you are replacing them with.

 

[Mal11224]

I switch to this light from LED but 2 X 250w. I just placed the unit about 12in off the water and kept an eye on my corals to make sure they were happy. Then lowered them to about 10in and that’s where I kept it.

 

[jda]

You can just go for it. Most acclimation issues are from intense LED lenses or bad/wrong spectrum... neither of which are around in the Hamilton fixture. If you are really worried about it, start with 4-5 hours and then add 15 minutes every day. You can go up well beyond 750 PAR with MH and T5 and not burn coral.

You can use that Apogee on these lights too.

 

[jd-woodlands]

You can just go for it. Most acclimation issues are from intense LED lenses or bad/wrong spectrum... neither of which are around in the Hamilton fixture. If you are really worried about it, start with 4-5 hours and then add 15 minutes every day. You can go up well beyond 750 PAR with MH and T5 and not burn coral.

You can use that Apogee on these lights too.

Sounds like I can hang it where I want from a coverage point of view and then just dial up length of the mid day MH over the course of a few weeks.

Thanks for the tips! Looking forward to getting the fixture in and up and running. Curious to see how different the MH / T5 combo looks and if it helps with my shading and shadow issues.

 

[jda]

Did you get the Hamilton 20k bulbs?

 

[jd-woodlands]

Did you get the Hamilton 20k bulbs?

Yes it’s coming with the Hamilton 20k bulbs - used fixture from a Reef2Reef member.

Should be here Tuesday.... along with my first Apex (New!).

 

[RCS82]

I switched from LEDs/T5s to M/Hs with LEDs supplementing and it was real easy. Like jda said I just started the M/Hs at maybe 3 hrs a day and added an hour each week til I got to 6 hrs.

 

[NYCMAN]

The Hamilton electronic ballasts have a dimmer. Seems that could be used instead of the photo period for acclimation?

 

[jd-woodlands]

Just an update - no real acclimation done, just figured out the t5 bulb combo i liked (4 blue+) and went straight to a 12 hour photo period with a 6 hour mid-day with the metal halides. no real issues with corals, they have colored up nicely in the previous shaded areas and things are starting to really take off. Most noticeably any of my wild Aussie pieces starting encrusting at the base and showing noticeable growth, which i hadn't experienced before with anything wild.

heat has been manageable and cost to run has been negligible so far.

 

[jda]

Good to hear. Even though MH can be a lot more light, it is not really much concern to burn/harm corals unless you are using 4300k, 5500k and 6500k bulbs - this used to be an issue in the olden days. I would also not sweat T5s unless you are dropping 10 or 12 of them over a tank in the European style.

You can probably turn the T5s off when the MH are running and save the electricity, if you want. Many do, but many do not. ...just something to consider.

 

[jmichaelh7]

Good to hear. Even though MH can be a lot more light, it is not really much concern to burn/harm corals unless you are using 4300k, 5500k and 6500k bulbs - this used to be an issue in the olden days. I would also not sweat T5s unless you are dropping 10 or 12 of them over a tank in the European style.

You can probably turn the T5s off when the MH are running and save the electricity, if you want. Many do, but many do not. ...just something to consider.

This is good to hear

 

[paul17]

all i can say is thank you..... maybe the halide and t5 industry will not go completely out of business for the aquarium hobby ....besides imo the best lighting ever