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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Lighting with new corals


Odobenus rosmarus

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Odobenus rosmarus

I've just bought a ton of new coral and they seems to be responding alright to my tank. A few of the corals aren't as open as they were at the LFS and I'm wondering if thats because of the change in lighting. At the store they were under very different lighting than my tank and I've read around that people put there lights to as little as 20%-30% for new corals. Why would I need to dial down my lights? I have a Marsaqua 165 watt Chinese LED that is 4.5 inches off the water; because I have my light so close to the water I usually keep it at about 60% anyways.

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If the corals were under less light at the LFS they can become stressed if you do not acclimate them to your more intense lighting. In soft corals this usually causes them to not open or the bleach. In hard corals you can easily bleach and kill the colony. It is best to either dim the lighting and then bring it up slowly over a few weeks. You can also place new arrivals in a shaded area of your tank and slowly move them into more light every couple days. Some pics would help me be able to tell if they are not opening from the lighting or if it is something else. Also a list of water parameters would help us as well!

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PathOfDeception

Definitely start it low in your tank and slowly make it work it's way up over the span of a few days. My new hammer coral appreciated that.

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Odobenus rosmarus

So I dimmed the lights and (like you said) my LPS really started looking better. They didn't open up fully but they are looking better now. I couldn't believe how much better my Kenya tree looked, it went from looking dead to perfectly healthy! I will add some pictures as soon as I can.

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Great that the corals are doing well now. and thank you for the tips, something to keep in mind when putting some new ones into my tank.

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