blackout

[Miss my puffer]

I have a 50 gal. breeder (36x18x18) tank that just lost its lighting system (ballast died). I am currently running 2 96 watt pcs and since I am in the market I think I'm going to upgrade. I found a good deal on a 250w mh and 2 96w pc and am thinking about getting it. I was worried about putting over 8w a gal. on the tank, but after looking over old posts I am not quite as worried about that. I did read that someone was talking about slowly acclimating the corals to the light. How do you acclimate the corals to the lights? Do you just turn the lights on for like two hours at first and then go up from there? Do you do this for a week then go up for a week and so on? I have mostly leather corals (but am looking at expanding my horizons) and I don't want to ko my coral with high light:flamed: . I've been looking to upgrade and now I have my excuse, I just don't want to do it at the expense of the corals I already have.

 

[Grins]

It won't be too much light at all. I acclimate corals that haven't come straight from MHs by placing a glass piece over the area the new coral is. I then place several layers of parchment paper over that. Every day I remove a piece of paper and then at the end of 10 days 2 weeks it is all gone.

Some also acclimate by starting something at the bottom and moving it up towards the top. The method of shorter lighting periods help as well. I chose my way because my lights penatrate deeply and it is a gradual acclimation.