Is my light TOO bright?

[scardall]

New tank parameters

Alk 10.2
Calc 450
Mg 1280

Next time you replace Florescent bulbs you should do it in stages 3-5 days apart and 1/3 at a time. You might shade your tank with egg crate or put some old bulbs back for a week or so. the replace them with new ones.

 

[john.m.cole3]

I'm going to leave the light alone for a while now. Maybe make adjustments every week? Very small adjustments?

 

[john.m.cole3]

Next time you replace Florescent bulbs you should do it in stages 3-5 days apart and 1/3 at a time. You might shade your tank with egg crate or put some old bulbs back for a week or so. the replace them with new ones.

it's a new fixture, therefore all new bulbs. ATI recommends breaking em in at 100% for 50 hours

 

[john.m.cole3]

Tank parameter update:

I did a 32 gallon water change over the weekend. Today my values are:
SG 1.025
NO3 50
PO4 .11
alk 9.3
Calc 420
Mag 1260

My monti cap doesn't look bleached any more and my war coral/favites are taking shape to the rock they were placed on. My biggest concern now is that my RBTA detached from its rock and was tumbling around in the tank. I moved him to a corner of low flow to recover and he hasn't moved or opened up real good since. Mouth is still tightly closed and no tissue is falling off of him. He still opens wider w/ lights on, but not half the siz he used to be. I plan on leaving him alone, period.

My flame hawfish (new addition) stays in hiding until feeding time and my one spot foxface seems to be swimming by his area a lot lately. I hope those 2 calm down and start getting along soon.

Things are looking up! I will do another large water change next weekend to bting these nitrates and phosphates down further. Maybe a little less feeding too! :)

 

[john.m.cole3]

oops! ^^^ wrong thread :)

 

[scardall]

it's a new fixture, therefore all new bulbs. ATI recommends breaking em in at 100% for 50 hours

I would shade you tank with egg crate. Maybe more than one layer. I did this for a new clam during acclimation. (this way you can break in fixture and acclimation your corals etc. to the new lighting.

 

[john.m.cole3]

Today is the first day my hammers are looking fatter and healthier. Not going to make any more adjustments for a while.

 

[mcarroll]

A shorter light cycle will also achieve the result....if I could figure area under a curve I could tell you how long, but I can't do that. :) So I always dropped my light to 3 hours per day for acclimation and worked my way up slowly over a few weeks to a month or so.

 

[john.m.cole3]

a month to ramp up... that's the info I needed. I'm going to let my babies (corals) enjoy this nice PE until next Monday, then increase blues by 10% and whites by 5%. I know it's a T5 fixture, but does this sound reasonable?

 

[mcarroll]

I'd keep tabs with a [HASHTAG]#lux[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#meter[/HASHTAG] - and record your changes in a log.

Make some notes about the tank along the way if you notice anything interesting.

 

[jamie callard Verified Sponsor]

it's a new fixture, therefore all new bulbs. ATI recommends breaking em in at 100% for 50 hours

but that does not have to be done over your display tank. break it in at another location use your old lights till the new system is ready

 

[mcarroll]

but that does not have to be done over your display tank. break it in at another location use your old lights till the new system is ready

I would ask ATI (or @john.m.cole3 or someone else here may know) to be sure, but I think all that means is that they should not be dimmed in that period....not that they must run continuously for 50 hours.

In other words...

50 hours / 3 hours a day = about 17 days...all at 100%...and that can work as an acclimation cycle at the same time. (How I did my halides.)

 

[john.m.cole3]

Very good insight

 

[john.m.cole3]

All of this information has been very helpful.