Acclimating corals to new lights

[Northstar24]

So, many of my corals were melted when I made the switch to LED's because I underestimated how strong they were.

Tonight on the way home from work, I am hitting the LFS to bring hone some additional corals - I'm thinking some acans/blastos and some monti caps (easier to keep corals). I have AI LED's over my tank and i need to acclimate the new stuff. I assume I just start with them in the sand correct? How long to I leave them there before moving them?

 

[bjohanson1234]

They are dimmable correct?
You can lower the brightness then gradually bring it back up over a few weeks.

I personally cut back the length of time my lights are on. Down to an hour, then every day, add another half hour onto the time until I get back up to full days.

 

[sen5241b]

You are not the first person to melt corals by placing them too close to the light. Put the nee corals down on the sand definitely. You might also try taking a couple pieces of screen and placing them so they only shade your new corals, then draw back the first screen after a couple days then the second layer of screen. At my LFS they had to use UV filtering glass under some strong MH lights.

 

[Northstar24]

The coral tanks at my LFS are actually lit by LED, but they aren't as strong as the AI units, I guess I could just set it to manual mode and dial the intensity way down. Right now I run them at 80% for all three channels for about 6 hours a day, and a couple hours 'actinic' (20/50/50) for a two hours on each side of the full intensity

Acans and blastos should be lower in the tank, while montipora should be mid to high correct?

 

[sen5241b]

The coral tanks at my LFS are actually lit by LED, but they aren't as strong as the AI units, I guess I could just set it to manual mode and dial the intensity way down. Right now I run them at 80% for all three channels for about 6 hours a day, and a couple hours 'actinic' (20/50/50) for a two hours on each side of the full intensity

Acans and blastos should be lower in the tank, while montipora should be mid to high correct?

Yeah but Montipora can be too high also. Err on the side of caution.

 

[little_fish]

Montis are more low light SPS, they tend to bleach under high lighting

 

[Northstar24]

My last monti bleached, the new one and my brain are both on the sand right now, after a few days I'll move the monti to its spot, about halfway up the rocks