Ramping up my new metal halides

[down&dirty]

SO I just got my new metal halide fixture. 2, 250 watt 10k metal halides with spider reflectors. I have them in the hood, and everyone says to ramp them up to not burn the corals. Some have even said to ramp up over a month or two. Problem is that, getting the metal halides in the hood meant that I had to remove the majority of the PC's leaving only my actinic bundle. So for most of the day the corals and other stuff are sitting under 110 watts of PC actinic which we all know is not the best actinic out there. Then for the few brief moments the metal halides are on the tank looks good. The rest of the day the corals look crappy. What can I do? I don't want my corals to be worse off than when I started with the PCs. Can I ramp up faster say, add 15 minutes a day until I am up to 8 hours? Can I burn for more than 8 hour? This is on a 75 gallon by the way. Should have gone for the 175's but they cost more than the 250's!!!!

 

[Ben1]

Besides ramping up that way you could use plastic diffuser over the tank to deflect some of the light. If the corals are movable you can place them on the sand and work them back into position over time and put the lights on much faster.

I don't see anything wrong with 15 min more every other day. I used to run 2 x 400s and 3 x 110 watt actinics over my 75, so the 250s will be fine for your tank.