Acclimating corals with LED's

[xxmurrxx]

Just wondering how you guys do this?
I just set up my LEDs, currently put them on aprox 20%.

Also curious if you repeat the acclimation process for every frag you buy?

 

[Zakk]

I bleached out some corals right away, instant shell shock.  No fatalities though, if a coral is healthy it usually can bounce back.  What's weird is I went from 500W of metal halide lights and the LED's still shocked the corals.  I ended up dimming the lights, and turning back the drivers on the LED's for a while. 

So now, yeah, I have to put a frag on the bottom of the tank and then move it.  Teebone actually came by and pointed out some corals that I had that were way too light.  I had to move them into a shady area to start getting some colour back.  It also depends on where you get a coral, that person might have a really good idea of where the coral should be placed.  Sometimes it happens slowly and you can't even tell the coral is going white, especially when they have good polyp extension. 

I'll say this...corals with heavier/longer polyps seem to take light better.  It must be like natural sunscreen. 

 

[xxmurrxx]

That's cool I'll take it slow, Bump it up a little every week or so.

All I really have right now is a hammer coral, zoas, and a couple shrooms.

Going to give a go at a sps frag or two maybe when Rick does his Windsor drop off.

 

[TORX]

I normally put new frags at the bottom of the tank and move them up slowly. Seems to be working so far. No die off out of the last few additions (knock on wood)

 

[pulpfiction1]

I had to do the same torx,first time i set up the lights the tips on anything near the upper 1/4 of the tank had bleaching,solution was on the floor of the tank for a couple of days

 

[TORX]

Bleached all my coraline algae to. But it has all purpled up again thank god.

 

[quikcolin]

I've ordered LEDs to replace the PC lighting in my BioCube... this was a good read!  I don't want to do any damage to my current corals.  I purchased a dimmer with the LEDs so I'll make sure that I slowly increase the strength of the light over a few weeks.

Good thread xxmurrxx

 

[xxmurrxx]

I got the dimmer too for my LEDs, picked up a couple sps frags they seem to be doing well, taking it slow with the lights going to turn it up a little every week until max. Currently only in week two though.

 

[quikcolin]

How do you other corals like it?  Hammer, etc?  Any colors being bleached out? 

 

[Zakk]

Softies seem to be almost completely unaffected by the LED's.  Zoas multiplied like crazy, and torch, frogspawn and candy cane all seem to thrive in it.  In fact I have a big 'globe' of mushrooms right at the top of the tank, and they're fine. 

I did notice that coralline lightened a bit, but I also noticed that it grew back thicker. 

 

[xxmurrxx]

Well my hammer never really showed much colour with my PC's but now the green is poping out with the blue LED's It's also opening up more it seems with the brighter lights, Zoa's are glowing brighter, shrooms look no different.

 

[quikcolin]

My LEDs are arriving this afternoon.

I have a frogspawn, and Duncan (Toadstool is sold), the Duncan is in the upper 3/4 of the tank, so it should be interesting to see how it reacts.  The Frogspawn is basically at the bottom, but reaches to the middle of the tank.  I'll slowly dial up the light over a few weeks. 

Looking forward to holding SPS, I've added a large new rock for them!

 

[xxmurrxx]

One of my hammers is in the mid section and is looking better with the led's opening up more. My lights are at about 75% now.

 

[Phil]

I switched to a Vertex Illumina LED fixture on my current 100 gallon tank several months ago and even today I have not gone over 50 percent on the whites. I run the blues and royal blues much higher 85 percent. I have to start everything off on the bottom. Quality Cree and Phillips LED's are incredibly powerful so we must be very careful acclimating coral even when they have been under MH lighting. I recently added some red LED pads to my fixture which add a very unique colour to the corals. The red is also great for critter hunting at night.