[deany]

Right i am changing my 250w 14k marine lux i have 3 on my tank i am going to 400w 14k blv would it be ok just to change 1 at a time or would it still shock the corals.

[chriss]

deany, on Oct 10 2008, 12:45 PM, said:

Right i am changing my 250w 14k marine lux i have 3 on my tank i am going to 400w 14k blv would it be ok just to change 1 at a time or would it still shock the corals.

You would be best advised to raise the lighting/adjust the photo period just to be sure. When I made the change from 250->400, I raised the canopy by a couple of inches and reduced the photo period. I also did one at a time, but that was more from a cost view as opposed to anything else, but it may have helped.

Chris

[deany]

chriss, on Oct 10 2008, 01:06 PM, said:

You would be best advised to raise the lighting/adjust the photo period just to be sure. When I made the change from 250->400, I raised the canopy by a couple of inches and reduced the photo period. I also did one at a time, but that was more from a cost view as opposed to anything else, but it may have helped.

Chris

m8 i cant raise the light i have the refectors build into a hood and it cant go up any more so do u think i should just cut do the hours there on.

[dylan]

that could be a big problem even with a reduced lighting period its best to raise the lights and bring them down an inch or so each week

[deany]

I dont no what i am going to do its a dimmable ballast would that make any diffrence.

[ben]

yeh you can dim the 400w for a while and then slowly up the wattage

[chriss]

You should have said it was a dimmable ballast, that makes it easier, assuming there are no issues with burning in new bulbs on lower settings.

My lights are built into a hood as well and I didn't think I would be able to raise them up, but with a few lengths of wood across the tank I manged to do it. Didn't look great but was only for a few weeks. With an enclosed hood, watch out for an increase in temperature, mine was fine, but then again I have a 100 gallon sump in the garage.

Another thing you could do is to put something over the tank to disperse/block some of the light. Egg crate may work, but something like a load of wood strips laid across front to back with a gap between each one and then gradually remove them.

Chris

[Crabbit]

When i change my lights i change the length i ran the new lights. I started off with 4hours and added an hour a weeks until the right lighting period was on. Worked fine for me. With sps lps and softs ric and zoos etc. I closely looked at all my corals before upping the lighting time and the plan was to leave it for another week at that period if any coral didn't like it but all went well for me.