Sorry about starting another LED intensity question. I know the general answer is to start slow, but my question is how slow? I feel I have a bit of a unique situation because I was given "live" rock and sand that had been sitting in a tank with no lights and no food and minimal current for "months." While I was moving the rock I found a clown (ocellaris, I'm pretty sure) and a watchman goby. That lead me to take everything to try to minimize changes. So this has been setup in my home now in an old biocube 29 with what turned out to be a bad hood for a bit over a month. I know I have the fish, some crabs and snails I tossed in, and at least one good sized peanut worm. No coral, of course, anything that is dependent on light has long since died it appears, including coraline. So my question is, do I need to acclimate this tank to LEDs? How easy will I need to take it at first? I was thinking maybe starting with a dawn dusk schedule over the course of 4 hours with a peak intensity of 30% at 2 hours., but I really just pulled those numbers out of the air. Can/should I be starting with something more than this?
Reviving "dead" tank, new LEDs
- Thread starter MrMischief
- Start date
I don't have a clear answer for you, but will share what I did when switching to led from pc lights... My LED are very intense, so I started at 10% and added 1% daily. I now run 60% blue, 35% white.
I was concerned about killing my corals. Wasn't too worried about the my fish. You probably could go faster.
I was concerned about killing my corals. Wasn't too worried about the my fish. You probably could go faster.
When I add new corals, to acclimate them, I place them on the bottom corner (darkest spot) and then move them slowly over time to their final resting place. If there is a concern, I will lower the LEDs and add intensity over time.
I didn't have any adverse reaction form my corals when I started with low light. I probably started lower than I needed, but I really couldn't tell how intense the new led was in comparison to the old power compacts, except I know my old pc lights were barely strong enough to sustain corals, not really grow them. I didn't want to take any chances, and I didn't lose a single coral during the first major acclimation. Come to think of it, I haven't lost a single coral since switching to led. I lost a beautiful trachy, to lack of light, hence why I upgraded.
I didn't have any adverse reaction form my corals when I started with low light. I probably started lower than I needed, but I really couldn't tell how intense the new led was in comparison to the old power compacts, except I know my old pc lights were barely strong enough to sustain corals, not really grow them. I didn't want to take any chances, and I didn't lose a single coral during the first major acclimation. Come to think of it, I haven't lost a single coral since switching to led. I lost a beautiful trachy, to lack of light, hence why I upgraded.
Just remember, corals can survive much longer in low light than they can in too much light. Since this tank sounds like it doesn't have corals, you can just start running your lights. The fish won't be harmed by turning the lights on. When you start to purchase corals, you can either turn the lights down to around 15/20% or place the corals on the sand near the edge and move them closer to the lights over the course of a few weeks. Another option is to shade the lights with layers window screening over the tank and every week, remove a layer of screen. As for long term use of your lights, you probably won't need any to turn up more than 75%. This will depend on the type of light and depth of the tank though.