lighting question

[estoniangirl]

so i have had my 12 gal aquapod for 6 or so months now, and it's just too small of a tank to play with, so i bought a 39 gal nano/cube... TANK DIMENSIONS: (L)24" x (W)20" x (H)20". Lighting # 150w 14,000k with 2 x 24w Actinics supplements and # 2 LED-HO 2 watt moonlights. i have a little clown fish, bangai cardinal, yellow headed goby, two spot candy hogfish, and a shrimp. i have some zoas, RBTA, ricordia, green star polyps, oh an a hammer. the lighting that i have on the aquapod is the lighting that came with it, regular 27w dual daylight and 27w dual actinic. so my question is, after my new tank is all cycled do i introduce everything to the new setup all at once or slowly and how about the lighting? do i turn it on like at 11 actinic and at 12 MH then turn it off at 9 and the actinic at 10 or do i do turn the light on for a few hours only the first time everything is transfered or what? i just dont want to ruin any of the corals or my fish,, sorry i'm very new to this lighting thing...never had a MH...


here is the link to what i got

http://www.fishtanksdirect.com/39gallonsignatureseriesbycad.aspx

thank you for your help in advance...

 

[akunochi]

When switching to an intense light like Metal Halide I suggest slow adjustment to the new lighting. When I took Zoos from the Nano with a single 14K 250W and introduced them to my new 180gal with 3 250W pendants I had to reduce lighting from time to time. I started by using the one center pendant and then added 1 for a few hours a day and once they could go the full lighting cycle the other.

In your case I would run the actinics, tthen run the MH for say 4-5 hours if they handle it....then 5 and half hours.then 6 etc until they adjust.

With Zoos you'll be able to tell as they'll shut when they can't handle the light. Mine did anyway.

 

[mfinn]

A easy way to acclimate corals to new lighting is to use something like eggcrate and 3-4 layers of window screen material over the tank.
You can leave you lights on ( on timers ) for the normal amount of time. Just remove 1 layer of window screen material every 4 days.

If it was me, and I could leave the old tank up for a extra week or so, I'd move all the corals and 1/2 the fish the first week. Then a week or so later after testing the new water all week move the rest of the fish over as long as no new am. shows up.

 

[akunochi]

I really like that screen idea...I'll use that next time.

 

[estoniangirl]

Thank you all... going to home depot