New T5's, any advice?

[Fiore]

Hey Max! We finally man'ed up (says "Fiore"...) and got some t5's, an upgrade from the Eclipse fluorescents... It's the great kind that doesn't get hot, you just throw it right over the tank, no retrofitting!

The question is A.) what can we now come buy from you that we couldn't before?!!! and B.) what might we do, if anything, to acclimate the coral to the additional light source.

Just learned what LUX is! Only this hobby would get me to geek out this much!!

- Fiore the man version:bum:

[ReefHotSpot]

Hey Fiore,

Sorry it's taken a little time to get back to you. Had my first few days off (FedEx Holiday) in a long time. Congrats on the upgrade.

We recently had another customer that upgraded to 400w 20k Hamilton bulbs from fluorescents and he cut down the duration light cycle to ease his corals into it. I'm sorry to say that he was not very successful. I would recommend a layering with some type of translucent material and removing a layer per week for maybe four weeks. We've used egg crate in the past and that has worked. Pay extra special attention to any rhodactis mushrooms as they have been prone to bleaching in our experience. That said, almost all rhodacs have come back for us once put into a shaded area.

In terms of new goodies, LPS would make some nice additions to the tanks. I think you are probably currently polyp and mushroom heavy so you also might want to think about a tridacnid clams for the tank.

Let me know if you have any other questions or just stop by whenever you guys get a chance.

Best Regards,
Max
www.reefhotspot.com