accimilating lights

[Venaman]

right now my lights consist og 2x40 watt NO bulbs. .
im going to get 4 x 110 watt VHO's and 1 x 250w MH.
how do i introducethe lights
all at once?
slowly?

thanks!

[eses]

Deffinatly do it slowly. I usually spend the course of a week slowly building the tank up to the new lights. You can shock your fish and corals if you don't.

It should be easier with your VHO's, and you can turn one on at a time and gradually bring them all on. I would run just one for a day or so, then turn two and three on towards the middle of the day and turn them off early.. After about a week you should be able to run them all with little ill effect, unless you have really sensitive animals.

When I switched to halides, I didn't acclimitize much at all. I moved my soft corals down toward the sand, and started running just one of the two lamps during my day cycle. I am going to do that for a week, and switch on the other one. None of the fish noticed that I can tell, and all of my corlas have been stretching towards the light.

If you notice your fish freaking out, your going too fast.

[Venaman]

thank you eses for your input

so what i will do than is take out the NO and put on 1 VHO bulb for a couple days
than 2 for a couple days
than 3 for a couple
4 for a couple
and during this period ill have a photoperiod of 8 hours
or is that to little?

and for the MH ill just put it on for a few hours during the day. . and slowly make it longer

how long should my MH be on for during the normal day?

[eses]

Sounds like a plan. 8 hours should be fine, I would run them whatever you normally do.

As far as how long to run MH, some people only use them for suppliment during the peak hours, or for 4-5 hours a day. I personally run them for a full day cycle, around 10-14 hours depending on how late I stay up. You have to watch your tank temperature though.

[Venaman]

ya thanks for the [replies

il prolly run the vho's 10 hours and i guess the MH 10 hours as well so long as i am fine with algae and the heat of the tank

is that good??