Acclimating new corals

[Reefscape]

Hi all, I got a question about acclimating corals....

 

I don't really understand the concept of acclimating corals to a specific light intensity?

For example in new cycled tank, the first corals you put in have to be acclimated to the light above your tank.

I read alot of forums saying to start of slow, for example 30% and work your way up to the desired intensity... Thus far I get it.

 

But what about the corals you put in after that first period?

 

Let say 2 months after the first ones went in, I decide to put in a couple more, and my light is at that time running at 60%.

Which means the new corals experience a bigger light output then the first ones that went in.

Do I have to adjust my lights again to 30% and start all over again? Or how does this work?

 

Isn't it possible to say for example that when running a LPS tank with a light at 75% intensity we keep it that way from the start.

BRS said in one of there latest videos about the AI Prime 16HD that for LPS the light should be 75%: 

 

 

Can anyone please explain this to me?

Thanks!!

 

 

[5*Chris]

1 hour ago, TheonlyDaan said:

Hi all, I got a question about acclimating corals....

 

I don't really understand the concept of acclimating corals to a specific light intensity?

For example in new cycled tank, the first corals you put in have to be acclimated to the light above your tank.

I read alot of forums saying to start of slow, for example 30% and work your way up to the desired intensity... Thus far I get it.

 

But what about the corals you put in after that first period?

 

Let say 2 months after the first ones went in, I decide to put in a couple more, and my light is at that time running at 60%.

Which means the new corals experience a bigger light output then the first ones that went in.

Do I have to adjust my lights again to 30% and start all over again? Or how does this work?

 

Isn't it possible to say for example that when running a LPS tank with a light at 75% intensity we keep it that way from the start.

BRS said in one of there latest videos about the AI Prime 16HD that for LPS the light should be 75%: 

 

 

Can anyone please explain this to me?

Thanks!!

 

 

When I was running a Hydra I used acclimation mode quite frequently (usually a 2 week acclimation period.) Even if the place I bought the corals from was blasting them with light, our setups weren't the same, so I figured better safe than sorry. 

 

With that being said, I used BRS recommended Hydra26 settings as a baseline and scaled it to my tank, which was scaling down in intensity. Again my tank wasnt the same as their test tank. And keep in mind lighting an empty tank is different than lighting a tank with livestock. 

 

 

[paulsz]

1 hour ago, TheonlyDaan said:

Which means the new corals experience a bigger light output then the first ones that went in.

Do I have to adjust my lights again to 30% and start all over again? Or how does this work?

Some people will say not to use acclimating mode just to help the new corals, given the existing corals are happy with the lights. 

 

What you can also do is put the corals low (on the sanbed) at the start. A week later, move them up a bit. A week, up a bit a more. And after 2-3 weeks, put them in their final position. Usually (if running led), the hotspot is down the middle. So you can start by putting them on the sand bed near the edges, then move them up and in from there (depending on the needs of the coral and where you want to place them). 

[Clown79]

Most start new corals on the sand bed and over days slowly move them up to the desired placement, so they acclimate to the light change slowly.

 

I never change my light settings when adding a new coral. This disturbs the other corals. Redundant.

 

Rule of thumb, never change light or flow for 1 coral to be happy because then you effect all the others for 1.

 

Frequent lighting changes and constantly playing around with light settings is not healthy for corals. They have to acclimate to every change and acclimation takes weeks to months. 

 

 

 

 

[Reefscape]

2 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

Most start new corals on the sand bed and over days slowly move them up to the desired placement, so they acclimate to the light change slowly.

 

I never change my light settings when adding a new coral. This disturbs the other corals. Redundant.

 

Rule of thumb, never change light or flow for 1 coral to be happy because then you effect all the others for 1.

 

Frequent lighting changes and constantly playing around with light settings is not healthy for corals. They have to acclimate to every change and acclimation takes weeks to months. 

 

 

 

 

So what you're saying is set your light to the desired intensity you want based on the corals you want to keep and leave it that way forever.

Set it and forget it 😁

[paulsz]

20 minutes ago, TheonlyDaan said:

So what you're saying is set your light to the desired intensity you want based on the corals you want to keep and leave it that way forever.

Set it and forget it 😁

yes! as long as you've got the right settings for the corals you want to keep (i.e. not too much light for LPS. Or enough light for SPS). 

[TerraIncognita]

10 minutes ago, paulsz said:

yes! as long as you've got the right settings for the corals you want to keep (i.e. not too much light for LPS. Or enough light for SPS). 

I'm not super good about my light acclimation. but I think a lot has changed on this honestly in the last 5 years.

 

And I'm sure EVERY reefer here, and no one is perfect, has just thrown them in on top or wherever they wanted and had corals do just fine.

 

To me I think I think you gotta have a pretty dramatic light difference nowadays for that. Additionally, I think most corals are being kept by cultivators now under high power LED's nowadays, I think A LOT of corals used to be kept under T5 as they were cheaper, so then people would put them under their nice home BLUE LED's and burn the daylights out of em.

 

I'd say just put them a little lower in your tank than where you actually want them, see how they do, and then move them up.

 

If you're trying to acclimate them to LESSER lighting, then yeah that's a whole nother game.

 

I haven't acclimated any of my recent corals light wise, but I buy them from all my LFS who keeps them under Kessil's and Tuna's. I've never bought a coral kept under non LED lighting in my area. Never bought online.

 

concerns in sequence of adding new coral frags for me is

 

1. Water Acclimation

 2. Dips (pest and hitchhikers are everywhere)

3. Flow acclimation (If you want to have them in a Higher flow)

4. Light acclimation

[pokerdobe]

Light acclimation is overrated. In fact, most any kind of acclimation other than temp is overrated. 

 

I've never once acclimated any of my corals, be it zoas, lps or acros and they all do fine. In some cases, the tank they're coming from has a near 300 PAR differential compared to mine. 

 

Don't sweat the small stuff - just dip your corals and throw them in. 

 

-Edit-

 

Dip your corals, cut off the base, then throw them in. 

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, paulsz said:

yes! as long as you've got the right settings for the corals you want to keep (i.e. not too much light for LPS. Or enough light for SPS). 

Exactly.

 

Everyone should know that constant fiddling and changing light settings is not good and over time when you question why your corals died a year later- thats 1 of the leading reasons.

 

BRS did a whole video on it.

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, TheonlyDaan said:

So what you're saying is set your light to the desired intensity you want based on the corals you want to keep and leave it that way forever.

Set it and forget it 😁

Yes.

 

And all experienced hobbysts will tell you, continuous changing of light and flow eventually comes with a bad outcome.

[5*Chris]

I must be lucky, I had better experience using acclimation mode vs moving coral around until they acclimated to the lighting. I figure weather changes, storms block out the sun for hours, days, weeks, I don't believe intensity of lighting dropping 20-30% will negatively effect my corals. But I also try to keep my hands out of the tank as much as possible. 

 

I do admit though I no longer light acclimate, I just temp acclimate and dip. Frags go directly to rack and then to their spot. 

[TerraIncognita]

2 minutes ago, 5*Chris said:

I must be lucky, I had better experience using acclimation mode vs moving coral around until they acclimated to the lighting. I figure weather changes, storms block out the sun for hours, days, weeks, I don't believe intensity of lighting dropping 20-30% will negatively effect my corals. But I also try to keep my hands out of the tank as much as possible. 

 

I do admit though I no longer light acclimate, I just temp acclimate and dip. Frags go directly to rack and then to their spot. 

Yeah I don't think most people light acclimate anymore. Kind of old school. I really think it was the T5 vs LED, and a lot of reefers were keeping LED but a lot of stores weren't buying the New LED systems and just kept those T5s.

[pokerdobe]

6 minutes ago, 5*Chris said:

moving coral around until they acclimated to the lighting.

That's probably more stressful than the acclimation mode - which is why you had more luck with the acclimation mode. Like you noted, keeping your hands out of the tank helps a lot. 

[Reefscape]

Thank you all for the help and info!

This will definitely help me take care of my future corals 😁

 

I'll keep you all posted 🤗

[mcarroll]

On 8/21/2020 at 7:20 AM, TheonlyDaan said:

BRS said in one of there latest videos about the AI Prime 16HD that for LPS the light should be 75%: 

Hard to imagine what's being said in a YouTube video....could be anything.  Be careful about the info you pick up there IMO.

 

Instead of looking for a canned procedure to follow, I would suggest that you start by reading up on what light acclimation is to the coral and why it's important to them.  Then back your way into what procedures may or may not be helpful to a new coral.

 

One of the big takeaways will be that corals are eminently adaptable...that's clearly their superpower.  However even superman has his kryptonite...so there's more to know about the story than "always acclimate" or "never acclimate".

 

Another big takeaway should be that phosphates play a crucial role in the success (or failure) of photosynthesis for corals.

 

This quote about the article "Fluorescent pigments in corals are photoprotective" (c.2000) is a good start:

Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/35048564

PDF: http://bioold.science.ku.dk/mkuhl/pages/PDF/Salih_et_al2000.pdf

Quote

All reef-forming corals depend on the photosynthesis performed by their algal symbiont, and such corals are therefore restricted to the photic zone. The intensity of light in this zone declines over several orders of magnitude from high and damaging levels at the surface to extreme shade conditions at the lower limit . The ability of corals to tolerate this range implies effective mechanisms for light acclimation and adaptation . Here we show that the fluorescent pigments (FPs) of corals provide a photobiological system for regulating the light environment of coral host tissue. Previous studies have suggested that under low light, FPs may enhance light availability . We now report that in excessive sunlight FPs are photoprotective; they achieve this by dissipating excess energy at wavelengths of low photosynthetic activity, as well as by reflecting of visible and infrared light by FP-containing chromatophores. We also show that FPs enhance the resistance to mass bleaching of corals during periods of heat stress, which has implications for the effect of environmental stress on the diversity of reef-building corals, such as enhanced survival of a broad range of corals allowing maintenance of habitat diversity.

The rest of the article is worth a look.

 

I would also suggest looking over some of the other articles I have profiled in the Light section on my blog.  There are a ton of nuggets in there, but this is one of my favorites since it fairly provocative:  Is the coral-algae symbiosis really ‘mutually beneficial’ for the partners?