acclimating new/more lights

[theone]

What is the best way to add more light to a tank?
I've got soft corals, a couple of leathers, a frogspawn, shrooms and zoas.

Recently I shocked my corals by adding another 96W of PC to my existing 96W thus causing them to close up and stop growing. I then took out the light. Now after a few weeks they are starting to open.

Thinking I want to add more LPS & venture into more light demanding corals I of course need to add more light.

Limited to what I have which is the PCs (some day I'll get MH when I get the $$$$$$) I'm going to add the other bulb.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Vin

 

[jango]

You could raise the lamp, lower the corals, or use some layers of plastic screen to diffuse the light and remove one at a time till the corals are in full light..You could also adjust the photo period to a much shorter day and gradually increase. actually the last one is working for me at the moment going from 175 to 250 over a 12" deep tank is a big difference...

 

[Brian]

If you can turn them on separately, then I'd do that. Keep the old bulb on the regular schedule and then have the new one on for an hour the first day and keep bumping it up a bit each day till the two match. If you can't then what Jango suggests will work too

 

[jango]

Good idea Brian...

 

[theone]

Unfortunatlly its the same ballast but that is a great idea. What kind of plastic screen are you talking about? That may work

 

[jango]

window screen you can layer it and pull layers off as the days go by to let more light through. I have never tried it.

you could also just cut your photo period if they are on the same ballast. If you are using twice the light I would cut it back to almost half of the normal photo period and gradually work it back up...

 

[Brian]

What size tank is it? When I was acclimating new corals back when I had 96 Watters I'd put a piece of acrylic over the whole tank and then put sheets of paper or cardboard between the light and the acrylic. PC's don't really get very hot and paper is quite common so it was a simple solution for me. The screen idea works great too but I didn't have any around at the time.

 

[theone]

Its a 50g breeder tank. I think I get the idea now.

Thanks