Installing new T5s.

[aja19919]

I am replacing my old T5s with new ones and read somewhere where you have to be careful because you could overload your coral with too much new light at once. My light fixture holds 6 lamps. My plan is to have (2) pink (2) actinic and (2) white. I put in a white last Friday (10,000 K) and it is BRIGHT!. A couple of my corals are not happy about this. Do I now limit the amount of time the one new light stays on? Alternate during the day with an hour on an hour off?


I was hoping to put in a new lamp every week and alternate between the white, pink and blue. I always thought my tank was low light but am putting more and more coral to the bottom when they begin to bleach.

Does anyone rent out a light refractor meter so I can accurately check my light levels?

 

[spieszak]

a piece of egggrate over the top will diffuse the new bulb some.. might be easier than trying on/off schedules ...
i've never left my bulbs go long enough that i really saw a difference in the reaction from my corals, so i'm not sure what the best route is...

 

[NanaReefer]

Don't know if it's luck or what but I've never done a thing after changing out my T5HO lamps and this is a year between replacement of all 4 at the same time. Go figure right?


Sent from my iPhone 4s via Tapatalk.

 

[mfinn]

If you have all the new bulbs now, I'd make it easy to do by putting all the new bulbs in now.
Leave your timer the way it's set now ( full day schedule)
Use a piece of egg crate like spieszak said, but put 3 layers of window screen over it.
That will block alot of the light, limiting the light that hits your corals.
After 4 days remove one layer, on so on.
So with 3 layers with one removed every 4 days it will give your corals 12 days to adjust to the new bulbs.
That's the way I usually did it.

 

[aja19919]

Would raising my lights have the same affect of dispersing the intensity ?

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[mfinn]

Would raising my lights have the same affect of dispersing the intensity ?

Thanks for the feedback.

You could raise them up high, then after a period ( 3-4 days ) drop them a little, then again after 3-4 days and do it in 3-4 stages.
I just think that by putting something over the top ( eggcrate and window screen) and leaving the lights mounted in their regular spot is easier. ( It was for me)

Either way will work, but I try and keep things easy and simple.
If we were closer I have plenty of egg crate and window screen you could use.

 

[aja19919]

Thanks mfinn.

 

[aja19919]

One more question on this: I have 6 lamps. Upon placing them in the fixture, do I space them out or clump them together? So white blue pink pink blue white ? or White, pink , blue white, pink ? white white blue blue pink pink ? white blue pink white blue pink ? clear as mud?

 

[N1Husker]

Amy, you could start by only hooking up 3 bulbs to start, one white, one blue and one pink. They in a few days, put in your second blue, then in a few days put in the other white and then put in the pink in a couple of days.

 

[spieszak]

I like my blues/pinks closest to the front and back glass. Gives me a little more color when looking through the tank, and the whites bearing down on the glass seems to give me more film algea..
one thing to consider though if you have multiple plugs and plan on doing sunrise/sunset type stuff, the bulb placement to the plugs isn't always intuitive.