Advice on changing to LED

[LxHowler]

Hello, so I have a 100l cube aquarium that is currently running on T5 lights, the ones that came in the hood, but these are starting to play up. Sometimes they cut out or take a while and they are constantly dim. Because of this I am looking at swapping to a AI prime but I was wondering how I should go about changing the lights over. I know they will both have pretty different outputs but was wondering what's best, should I just swap and do a harsher swap but get it over with or is there a certain time that i should take to swap.

 

[P-Dub]

Just jump in and swap them out. Start out at lower levels of light output and go through an acclimation period of slowly ramping up the intensity over a period of two to four weeks. Watch your corals and see what they are telling you. I'm sure that they will be somewhat unhappy-ish in the beginning. Change is something that corals don't take lightly. Give them time.

 

[LxHowler]

Just jump in and swap them out. Start out at lower levels of light output and go through an acclimation period of slowly ramping up the intensity over a period of two to four weeks. Watch your corals and see what they are telling you. I'm sure that they will be somewhat unhappy-ish in the beginning. Change is something that corals don't take lightly. Give them time.

Thanks that makes sense. The thing I was worried about was just blasting them with a different light source. Thanks for clearing that up

 

[LxHowler]

So my prime just arrived and was wondering what everyone would recommend as a start intensity. I am trying the Karen vazquez signature to start as her tank is closest to mine. For the start intensity is 50% too high over 30 day acclimation period? Sorry if this sounds stupid but this is my first venture into led lighting

 

[Dbichler]

I would start 25% blues and 5% whites or others and slowly ramp up from there. 50% off the bat may stress too much.

 

[PBnJOnWheat]

Hello, so I have a 100l cube aquarium that is currently running on T5 lights, the ones that came in the hood, but these are starting to play up. Sometimes they cut out or take a while and they are constantly dim. Because of this I am looking at swapping to a AI prime but I was wondering how I should go about changing the lights over. I know they will both have pretty different outputs but was wondering what's best, should I just swap and do a harsher swap but get it over with or is there a certain time that i should take to swap.

I’m upgrading from AI’s to Hydra 32’s and a 64 and I know that you just gotta take it slow and ramp em up. Not too terribly difficult if it helps corals shipped overseas and overnight with probably little to no light I even did a 3-4 day blackout on my tank with some pricey pieces and they were fine. The only thing to be really worried about is bleaching and ramping them up too fast. Shouldn’t be too difficult though :)

 

[LxHowler]

I’m upgrading from AI’s to Hydra 32’s and a 64 and I know that you just gotta take it slow and ramp em up. Not too terribly difficult if it helps corals shipped overseas and overnight with probably little to no light I even did a 3-4 day blackout on my tank with some pricey pieces and they were fine. The only thing to be really worried about is bleaching and ramping them up too fast. Shouldn’t be too difficult though :)

That's good to hear. I was aware of the bleaching which is why I am being so cautious about all of this. I have got the light on the tank now and it's at 40%, I'm using the inbuilt acclimation mode to slowly raise the levels over the next 30 days. Hopefully that should be slow enough

 

[LxHowler]

I would start 25% blues and 5% whites or others and slowly ramp up from there. 50% off the bat may stress too much.

Thanks for the tip. I have used the inbuilt acclimation mode which drops all of the led to 40% of the schedule I'm using and builds up to the normal schedule over 30 days. I'm hoping this will be slow enough to not have any negative effects. So far everything seems happy

 

[PBnJOnWheat]

That's good to hear. I was aware of the bleaching which is why I am being so cautious about all of this. I have got the light on the tank now and it's at 40%, I'm using the inbuilt acclimation mode to slowly raise the levels over the next 30 days. Hopefully that should be slow enough

Didn’t know they had that, guess I’ll be doing that soon too!!! I ordered the HMS mount to hand the Hydras and they sent it with USPS... was supposed to be delivered last week lol lmk how that mode works though I’d be interested to know your opinion on it. Another reason AI IS SUPERIOR!!!

 

[LxHowler]

Didn’t know they had that, guess I’ll be doing that soon too!!! I ordered the HMS mount to hand the Hydras and they sent it with USPS... was supposed to be delivered last week lol lmk how that mode works though I’d be interested to know your opinion on it. Another reason AI IS SUPERIOR!!!

So far the node seems to be working well. Obviously it's it day 2 of 30 so can't be certain. The only issue I can see with it is that because it drops everything in proportion some of the colours just aren't on or are extremely low. At one point in my schedule the red is set to 3, because if the acclimation being at 40% the first day it was just off. Easily fixed by temporary raising the level so that it came on at 1 though. Definitely seems to make it easier than manually doing it