Lighting Advise

[Pistol]

I currently have 4 AI sol super blues running 90% 12" above the water, I have added 2 250 watt 14k MH. My plan is to run the MH 4 to 6 hours a day and reduce the sols to about 50% and run the lights about 15" off the water.
My question is how to transition without burning the coral, I have an LPS dominate with a few SPS 90gal tank.

 

[kapelan]

how big is the tank?

 

[zoomster]

how big is the tank?

I am going to hazard a guess and say maybe 90 gallons.

 

[Pistol]

It's a 90, 48x18x24

 

[Shooter000]

Can you raise the MH's at first?, then drop them down or maybe run them for short intervals 30min on 30min off?¿

 

[zoomster]

I would be pretty worried about burning them as well.
As I do not have LEDs - yet - I am not sure myself but, would you be able to place your Mh's a safe distance away and then slowly move them down closer?

 

[kapelan]

I have 60g and 600W fixture about 6" of water. Not using it on full power. That's what I did:
- slowly increased power until algae become anoing
- once this point was found I reduced the power.
From MH you can do the same, like: start with 2-3h and slowly increase it.
I changed settings once a week or two - no harry.
Effect will be the same.

 

[Pistol]

Can you raise the MH's at first?, then drop them down or maybe run them for short intervals 30min on 30min off?¿

They re all on a single fixture but I could suspend the halides a little above the fixture.

 

[Pistol]

I have 60g and 600W fixture about 6" of water. Not using it on full power. That's what I did:
- slowly increased power until algae become anoing
- once this point was found I reduced the power.
From MH you can do the same, like: start with 2-3h and slowly increase it.
I changed settings once a week or two - no harry.
Effect will be the same.

I'm leaning toward reducing the leds a bit and running the halides 2 hours a day for a while then reduce leds more and increase halide time an hour a week.

 

[Kman]

I would install all the lighting and start off with 15 min of the MH being on. During this time reduce your SOL to about 20% intensity. Then have the MH turn off and the SOL to go back to your normal settings. Over the next few weeks add 10 min every week for the MH and bump your SOL up by 2% till you get to what you want to run it at. It will take a few months but you should have not color or growth issues and would be the best way to transition.

 

[Pistol]

Thanks everyone, i will take it real slooowww.

 

[Pistol]

OK so I started today, I turned the whites down from 85% to 20% and ran the halides for 15 minutes then turned the whites back to 85%.
WOW, significantly brighter. Will continue this way for a week then increase to 30 minutes and so on.

 

[Kman]

Just watch everything carefully. If you notice shriveling in LPS, soft or even SPS like the coral is trying to get away from something or a sudden decrease in color back things off a little. Switching between MH and LED can be tricky and takes time. So no rushing or you will have dead corals to show off your new MH. I would only change your intensity on your LED and not the color because it is to much of a change. The idea is for your corals to slowly build up a tolerance to the new lighting. I would have the MH turn on mid cycle like a peak time almost and then extend as needed the time it is on.