T5&LED hybrid acclimation

[IslandLifeReef]

My wife got me an Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid light for Christmas for my Reefer 170. I currently have the fixture mounted at 11.5 inches above the waterline. I am running ATI bulbs in the following configuration. Blue+, Coral+, Actinic, and Blue+. I am also running my Hydra 26HD with an AB+ spectrum.

I am worried about adding to much light to soon. The light is about 1-2 inches higher than when I was only running my LED. I am currently running to LED for 10 hours a day with a 30 minute ramp up and ramp down. I didn't adjust the intensity of the LED since I raised the light. I figured that the intensity would decrease a little due the the change in height and the light would be less focussed due to the increased height. I have started running the T5's for 3 hours a day and plan to increase it by one hour a week until I am running the T5's for 9 hours a day.

Any suggestions, or does my plan sound good. I have read that it is hard to harm corals with T5 lighting.

 

[rkpetersen]

That is more and faster than I would do it, but every tank is different. With two tanks now, one with Hydras and the other with Radions, I started with one hour of T5 centered at the midday LED peak, and increase that by no more than 30 minutes per week. I have also read that it's hard to harm corals with T5s. Turn them on for 10 hours, in addition to your LEDs, and it's all good, they say. That doesn't make any kind of scientific sense to me. If you take your corals into photo-inhibition range with your T5s, 10 hours of it will be a lot harder on them than a couple of hours. When my T5s are on and the LEDs at midday max, the PAR rises to around 600 at the top center of the tank just under the water. I'm not going to suddenly subject my corals to that. Nothing good happens fast on the reef.

 

[Daniel Waters]

My wife got me an Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid light for Christmas for my Reefer 170. I currently have the fixture mounted at 11.5 inches above the waterline. I am running ATI bulbs in the following configuration. Blue+, Coral+, Actinic, and Blue+. I am also running my Hydra 26HD with an AB+ spectrum.

I am worried about adding to much light to soon. The light is about 1-2 inches higher than when I was only running my LED. I am currently running to LED for 10 hours a day with a 30 minute ramp up and ramp down. I didn't adjust the intensity of the LED since I raised the light. I figured that the intensity would decrease a little due the the change in height and the light would be less focussed due to the increased height. I have started running the T5's for 3 hours a day and plan to increase it by one hour a week until I am running the T5's for 9 hours a day.

Any suggestions, or does my plan sound good. I have read that it is hard to harm corals with T5 lighting.

The extra hanging height might reduce your light output by 10% but the 4 T5 bulbs are probably putting out more light than your hydra 26, so that is a pretty substantial increase in par for that 3 hour period (over double your current par I'm guessing). You will probably be okay at starting with 3 hours but that's a little more aggressive than I'd recommend. Why the 3 hours versus starting with one or even two hours, or why not reduce the LEDs during that 3 hour period? If you are running your alk in the mid to higher range (like 9 dkh or higher), I'd keep a really close eye on any corals to be sure tips don't start getting burnt or getting some bleaching on sps. If corals start looking really faded, you might want to pull back intensity or duration. In general, I think lps and softies will tolerate higher light increases pretty well. They might look ticked off in the short term, but they can typically tolerate high par values easily enough despite bring known as lower light needing corals.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Thank you both @rkpetersen and @Daniel Waters for the information and insight.

That is more and faster than I would do it, but every tank is different. With two tanks now, one with Hydras and the other with Radions, I started with one hour of T5 centered at the midday LED peak, and increase that by no more than 30 minutes per week. I have also read that it's hard to harm corals with T5s. Turn them on for 10 hours, in addition to your LEDs, and it's all good, they say. That doesn't make any kind of scientific sense to me. If you take your corals into photo-inhibition range with your T5s, 10 hours of it will be a lot harder on them than a couple of hours. When my T5s are on and the LEDs at midday max, the PAR rises to around 600 at the top center of the tank just under the water. I'm not going to suddenly subject my corals to that. Nothing good happens fast on the reef.

The closest any of my corals are to the light is 22 inches, 10.5 inches below the waterline. That is a montipora setosa. I don't have a PAR meter, but based on measurements from others with a similar setup, I would say that the most PAR that is seen by the highest coral is 300. Does that still sound like I am being to aggressive to you?

The extra hanging height might reduce your light output by 10% but the 4 T5 bulbs are probably putting out more light than your hydra 26, so that is a pretty substantial increase in par for that 3 hour period (over double your current par I'm guessing). You will probably be okay at starting with 3 hours but that's a little more aggressive than I'd recommend. Why the 3 hours versus starting with one or even two hours, or why not reduce the LEDs during that 3 hour period? If you are running your alk in the mid to higher range (like 9 dkh or higher), I'd keep a really close eye on any corals to be sure tips don't start getting burnt or getting some bleaching on sps. If corals start looking really faded, you might want to pull back intensity or duration. In general, I think lps and softies will tolerate higher light increases pretty well. They might look ticked off in the short term, but they can typically tolerate high par values easily enough despite bring known as lower light needing corals.

Almost all of my corals are in the bottom third of my tank, more than 14 inches below the waterline and more than 2 feet below the light. I only have 2 SPS corals, and the rest are LPS. As mentioned above, I don't have access to a PAR meter, but based on readings from others, the maximum PAR that any of the LPS are seeing should be 250 or less. I will watch them.

The reason I picked 3 hours to start is because the research I did suggested that anything 2 hours or less would not benefit the corals at all. So, I thought I would start with 3 hours and monitor. If after a week everything looked great, I would increase it by an hour. Any signs of trouble, and I would reduce the time. Do you still think I am being to aggressive with the additional information I provided?


If anyone else has any input, I am open to suggestions.

 

[Daniel Waters]

Thank you both @rkpetersen and @Daniel Waters for the information and insight.



The closest any of my corals are to the light is 22 inches, 10.5 inches below the waterline. That is a montipora setosa. I don't have a PAR meter, but based on measurements from others with a similar setup, I would say that the most PAR that is seen by the highest coral is 300. Does that still sound like I am being to aggressive to you?




Almost all of my corals are in the bottom third of my tank, more than 14 inches below the waterline and more than 2 feet below the light. I only have 2 SPS corals, and the rest are LPS. As mentioned above, I don't have access to a PAR meter, but based on readings from others, the maximum PAR that any of the LPS are seeing should be 250 or less. I will watch them.

The reason I picked 3 hours to start is because the research I did suggested that anything 2 hours or less would not benefit the corals at all. So, I thought I would start with 3 hours and monitor. If after a week everything looked great, I would increase it by an hour. Any signs of trouble, and I would reduce the time. Do you still think I am being to aggressive with the additional information I provided?

If anyone else has any input, I am open to suggestions.

You will probably be fine. I worry less when people are adding in T5s than when people are adding in LEDs. I am even more cautious when people switch totally from one lighting type to another, as I think that is a bigger potential shock to corals.

My concern is that you essentially probably doubled the amount of light that your corals are used to getting during that 3 hour period. That's a large increase and a 3 hour window is not an insignificant amount of time. This is not something I'd normally recommend because if you bleach a coral (which can happen in one day), you can't undo that or go back in time. Sometimes you can tell corals are looking unhappy and make adjustments, but many times it is a quick overnight event. In your case, your LPS corals probably don't even need the extra par, but I think they won't have any trouble handling the extra light. Also, the par range you are talking about is not an extreme range like 750+ par or something like that, so your 3 hour window is probably fine. Your par range seems very reasonable (probably not needed for your lps, but probably helpful for your sps).

Be sure to monitor your alkalinity levels after any light change. You want to be sure you keep your alk levels stable. If you have a lot of corals, you should definitely see an increased uptake in calcium and alkalinity. I personally just tweaked my lighting intensity lower on just my LED portion (not my T5s), and it caused a 9% daily decrease in alkalinity consumption.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Thanks again @Daniel Waters. I didn't think about the potential increase in Alk and Calcium uptake. I usually keep my Alk at 7.7 and rarely see it move. If it does move, it is never more than 0.1 in a week. I use a doser that doses 4 times per day, so I trust that it is pretty steady. I will definitely watch for more uptake and adjust accordingly. I am hoping to get more SPS and am excited about the potential to do so with this light combo.

Again, thanks for the great advice and info.

 

[Colorado reefer]

I just got the aquatic life hybrid...wow the extra light the t5s add is pretty insane!
How did the acclimation work out for you?

 

[fernalfer]

I'm in the same boat. I have the Hydra 26HD light and have the 24" Aquatic Life T5 with 4 Bulbs. I was running the SPS AB+ settings but now that i have added the T5's not sure if i should be Pulling back on my LED intensity and how much does adding the T5's throw off the spectrum of the AB+ settings i had on the Hydra?