Best way to acclimate to LED's?

[gnashty]

Later this week I am picking up 3 new LED fixtures for my 180. I am running T5's now. I dont have the luxury of dimming the new fixtures and they will be mounted inside a canopy so I cannot raise them up higher and slowly drop them down.

What are some other ways to acclimate? I fear bleaching all my corals as the new LED's are MUCH brighter than my T5's. I plan to start with a very low photo period and ramp it up every other day or so. Starting with 1 hour, then 1.5 hr...etc. Is this a good plan or should I try something different? Ive heard of people using multiple layers of window screen and remove layers as time goes on until they are acclimated.

Any other ideas? Thoughts?

 

[gnashty]

How many layers? how long in between removing layers of the screen?

Whats the best way to build the screen layers?

Each fixture has 2 switches - white and blue. Should I just go all blue for a set length of time then all white or should i go all in?

I know - too many questions but I dont want to harm any corals in the process.

 

[jbadd99]

Ive read most use 3-4 screens and remove one every week or so... along with a reduced photoperiod.

 

[gnashty]

Charlie, what time would you start with? and in what increments?

 

[gnashty]

Amici;681986 wrote: How many watts of T-5 do you have and what reflectors?

Which fixture did you buy?

About 475 watt of T5 but I mostly only run the actinic which only utlizes 2 of the 6 lamps. The fixture's I bought are equivalent to 250W MH each, they are 120w fixtures.

very similar to these

 

[gnashty]

Yes

 

[ichthyoid]

Lemme guess,........ahhh,......hmmmm.....you got the 20K? -lol

 

[ichthyoid]

Gary-

Here's my $0.02-

Try to measure what your peak and PAR is. I think Robb has a meter (mine's not working).

Then replicate that level for the time you usually have it on.

It's a PAR x time thing. Using screen, or only the blue's, will both be a guess unless you put a meter under it. You may be able to get close using your peepers, but they are not very good at indicating how a coral will respond, IME.
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[jef4y]

When I acclimated my tank to my T5's (which were more powerful than my LEDs) I used a reduced photo period, and 4 layers of screen, removing 1 per week.