[Pomme]

Light timing when adding new lights?

I have at the moment a 250w 14k de metal halide, two 18w actinics, and another 18w which is covered in mesh so gives the tank a moonlight effect over my 100 gal sps dominated tank.

The timings so far are:
18w actinics - on at 8 am
250 watt - on at 9 am
18w in mesh - off at 9am
18w in mesh - on at 9pm
250 watt - off at 9pm
18w actinics - off at 10pm

i am going to be adding 2 more 250 watt metal halides and was thinking of running the lights like this in the end:
18w actinics - on at 8 am
250 watt - on at 9 am
18w in mesh - off at 9am
two 250 watt - on at 10am
two 250 watt - off at 8pm
18w in mesh - on at 9pm
250 watt - off at 9pm
18w actinics - off at 10pm

when i add the lights (on the 20th) i was thinking of running them together at 1pm to 2pm and then every week increase this by 30mins.

Does that sound okay?

andrew

[acropora]

i am going to be adding 2 more 250 watt metal halides and was thinking of running the lights like this in the end:
18w actinics - on at 8 am
250 watt - on at 9 am
18w in mesh - off at 9am
two 250 watt - on at 10am
two 250 watt - off at 8pm
18w in mesh - on at 9pm
250 watt - off at 9pm
18w actinics - off at 10pm

when i add the lights (on the 20th) i was thinking of running them together at 1pm to 2pm and then every week increase this by 30mins.

Does that sound okay?
Andrew, Yes it is very important to acclimate your tank to new lighting. Especially when adding two-250 watt MH's. Adding them in a noon sequence and slowly increasing the photoperiod is a good way to go. This will slowly acclimate your corals to the more intense light. An additional method used with the shortened photoperiod, is to raise the lighting hood several inches. You can then gradually bring it down over the course of a month.

Your final set up is good because it starts off with actinics,then goes to one M.H., and for a noon time period you will briefly have the two additional M.H.s.You will end with your actinic. However you should consider removing the mesh from the actinic, since it can be a fire hazard. You can also leave the actinic on the entire day; where they start off the cycle and end the cycle. For moon lights the Blue LED models work very well and are very efficient.

[Pomme]

hiys anthony. yeah got rid of the mesh a few days ago. and the new 250's are up and running, and i have them incresing the time they are on by 10 mins a day

i plan on having like this in the end:

actinincs on : 9am
single 250 on at 10am
double 250's on at 1pm
double 250's off at 6pm
single 250 off at 9pm
actinincs off at 10pm.

all corals are already starting to look alot better, with more colour coming out.

[acropora]

Sounds good. ............. Good luck with all.

[Pomme]

cool, yeah already starting to see some colour come back to some of the corals.