Light acclimation of corals.

[Chiefmcfuz]

I know the decision of what lighting to get is often considered after you have already bought a tank and a light setup usually from a LFS. Most times without thinking about what direction you plan on taking into the hobby you pick up a regular Normal Output Fluorescent Light. Then the day arises that you either decide that you want to keep live plants or corals. Then the inevitable questions you ask yourself about what you want to keep. This thread has nothing to do with that. This thread however, does deal with the following problem. After you select your lighting and put it in place how do you acclimate the livestock already in your tank to the lighting and how do you acclimate new livestock you put in your tank.

Here are some questions you need to ask yourself and the person/LFS where you buy your livestock.

1. What was in my tank before I upgraded my lighting?
2. What is the lighting req's of all the corals I have or plan on purchasing?
3. What lighting type and wattage are these animals coming from.
4. How often are the light bulbs changed where I buy my corals?
5. How often are the ballasts replaced where I buy my corals?

If you have livestock in your tank before you upgrade your lighting you will probably want to shorten your daytime cycle, this is most important going from NO lighting and PC lighting to Metal Halide Lighting Or MH lighting. Here are some steps I followed when I upgraded from Power compact or PC lighting to MH lighting.

1. Using 2x4 blocks I raised the new MH light fixture 6 inches above the tank.
2. I used Light diffuser to cover my tank in 3 layers offset to cut some of the light penetration of the tank.
3. I shortened my daytime cycle to 3 hrs per day.
4. After 1 week I took off 1 layer of light diffuser and extended my light cycle by 1/2 hour.
5. At 2 weeks I extended another 1/2 hour, lowered the light by 1 block and removed another layer of light diffuser. This left my last layer of light diffuser as my tank cover.

I repeated step 5 until the light was resting on the tank on it's legs, and until my daytime light cycle to 8-9 hours of MH lighting. I was extra careful because of the horror stories I heard here or people losing corals due to lighting upgrades.

Ok so there is my plan for upgrading lighting when I had livestock inside the tank already but what if you have no corals in your tank? You can just slap on the light and start stocking right?

I would say in short yes but only in certain instances. You need to ask questions 2 thru 5 now.

More importantly I would say that if you purchase a piece of coral from someone with MH lighting and you have MH lighting depending on the wattage difference you may have to place the coral lower or higher in the tank.

For instance I bought a piece of Purple rim cap from Jim (House of laughter) I came home and put it as high as I possibly could in my tank, why? This is because his lights were 250w MH's and mine were 150 w MH lighting.

On the flip side I went to my LFS a few days ago and bought some zoas. Knowing that my LFS has only PC lighting I came home and turned off my MH lighting completely. I then put the frag on the sand near a little shade where it would not get a full dose of lighting for a little while and waited an hour before turning the lights back on. While it got used to my lighting I moved it out into the open slowly and moved it up slowly as well.

If your LFS has MH or T5 lighting and even PC lighting and you are serious about buying a piece from them ask them how often they change their ballasts and light bulbs as well. This is the same as asking them their PH SG, and to feed a fish before you buy it to see if it is eating.

You may or may not know but as time goes on the ballasts and the light bulb start to get older and not produce light as strong as when they were brand new. So if the guy at the LFS doesn't know or says they are more than 6 months old you may want to think about starting that piece of coral lower in the tank than if they tell you they replace their bulbs and ballasts on a 6 month rotation schedule. It does not hurt to have some light diffuser on hand cut into a small enough area to shade a new piece of coral and remove it slowly until you are satisfied that it is happy.

I know I am speaking in layman's terms but that is because I am not a scientist but I hope all can understand my meaning.
A good general rule of thumb is to be cautious because these living things we put into our tank depend on us to keep them alive now, they may be captive bred or wild harvested but we owe it to them to make them happy.

MR prides it's self on conscientious and responsible reefkeeping, I hope this helps.

 

[tosiek]

Nice post Chief. :thrash: I don't think there is anything to add to that.

A good general rule of thumb is to be cautious because these living things we put into our tank depend on us to keep them alive now, they may be captive bred or wild harvested but we owe it to them to make them happy.

I really liked that quote. Good husbandry wins in the end.

 

[Tonyscoots84]

ummmm no questions ... nice job chief :party:

 

[DEEPWATER]

Great post Chief

I do have one thing to add ,Dont ask your LFS anything ,as most of them have no clue as what they are doing ,plus you think they will tell you the truth about anything in their store . Dont trust your LFS ,they only want to sell you anything they can

 

[steveo32]

Chief I think this is a great tool for all us reefers to use , A+ job

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

Ronen not all LFS's are that way there are actually some that care about what they sell you. C'mon I know I forgot something, share your experiences with lighting upgrades as well, there are a number of us who have done it at some point in time.

 

[tosiek]

you covered it all Chief. Not much more to add on light acclimation except ways of accimating. Always more than one way to skin a cat.

 

[Awibrandy]

Thank you Chief! Great Thread.....

 

[newbie_newbie_new]

One alternative method I read about recently was a 'screen method' where instead of having to continually move the coral you put it in its final place right off the bat, but screen it less and less each day. This way the coral can be kept/glued in place and does not need to adapt to new flow conditions, the constant handling, and/or the knocking over by annoying turbo snails and hermit crabs. I'm wondering if any of you have actually tried this. To quote Anthony Calfo:

"Perhaps the best and simplest way to acclimate new invertebrates to new light is to employ an interesting technique with plastic screen or mesh to act like a shade cloth. Take some coarse plastic window screen (AKA flyscreen or hardware fabric) and cut small pieces that will be slightly larger than the footprint (diameter) of the coral. Make a stack of these pieces (12-15 pieces) and place them above the new coral between the light and the water surface to obviously filter light (perhaps on the aquarium cover). This will allow a coral to be placed high in the aquarium in its appropriate, expected final position without fear of suddenly shocking the specimen with bright light. Then, one sheet of screen is removed each day or every other until all pieces are gone, providing a gradual and filtered period of acclimation to new/bright light over a period of weeks. It’s inexpensive and effective!"