Changing k value

[coil1002]

Its time to change my bulb I want to change to a 10k from a 14k. How would I go about acclimating my corals to the new light? I assume I would shorten the light cycle for a while then slowly bring it up.

 

[Brenden]

Going from a 10 to 14 of the same wattage you should not have to do anything. If going from 14 to 10 you may want to shorten it a little.

 

[joshinjosh]

i wouldnt bother if you don't have an sps dominated tank. the 14k bulb probably will have less par anyways. yeaa itll have more blue par but don't worry about it

 

[coil1002]

Going from a 10 to 14 of the same wattage you should not have to do anything. If going from 14 to 10 you may want to shorten it a little.

Yes I am going from 14 to 10 I would like more growth for now so I will shorten the light cycle for a bit

 

[DonW]

You may want to add some eggcrate or window screen. There may be a big difference in intensity depending on the bulbs.

Don

 

[coil1002]

so put some egg crate on top of the tank topped with 5 layers of window screen the remove one daily ?

 

[fly guy]

shortening the photoperiod is the simplest way and will work fine.

If you are going from bulbs that are 1/3 of the par of the 10k's that you are changing to, which is quite possible if you are going to 10k xm's for instance......i would just cut it in half, then add a 1/2 hour every few days until you are where you want to be.

That should be plenty gentle of a transition

I just recently did a similar change on one of my tanks. All of my stonies were fine with it.......i did end up having to move some zoas down as they simply werent ever going to tolerate the new light as high in the tank as they were