Lighting schedule

[Northwoods]

My 60" dual 175W 10,000K MH Hamilton hood for my 120 gal reef arrived today and I am looking for suggestions on a lighting schedule to bring the tank up to speed with the new hood. I am also interested in suggestions as to a final daily lighting scheme.
I just completed moving everything over to the 120 from my 55 gal which was lighted by a Coralife 4X65W PC hood w/moonlights. Currently I am using a combination of PC hoods to light the tank. I would like to disassemble the Coralife hood and put the (4) 65W lamps in the new hood. My concern is that the Coralife uses plastic connectors with 12 gauge wires similar to medium speaker wire, and I am worried about the heat affecting the wires. Will I need to shield the wires even though they will enter from the ends? I hope someone is familiar with the Hamilton hoods to offer a suggestion.
My tank is a 60X18X24 Perfecto with a 4" sand bed and 165 lbs of LR. It has been up and running for 6 months with sand and rock as well as a clean-up crew. I use a CPR overflow to drop the water from the main level of the house to a 100 gal sump in the lower level, and then use an Iwaki 55 to push it back up. The 55 gal is currently sitting over my sump to be used as a refugium.
I hope I have given enough information to help answer my questions.

 

[ChrisRD]

Most run halides 8-10 hours a day and actinics an hour or two longer. I think you'd be fine running the PCs for whatever time you were running them before and just ramp the halides up. You can start at maybe 2 or 3 hours and then add an hour every few days to a week.

You could also use the "screen" method. You get some lighting eggcrate and fiberglass window screening. Cut (snip) the eggcrate to fit on top of the tank and then cut a few sheets of window screening to lay on top of it. You can run a full lighting schedule and then just remove a layer of screen each week until you're acclimated. This works well when acclimating a new coral too - you can just use little squares of screening that shade the new coral without effecting the rest of the tank. One thing to watch-out for with this method... ...having the screens over the tank will effect evaporation rates which can in-turn effect cooling (ie. watch your temps).

Starting the lights mounted up high and gradually lowering them works too if that's an option.

HTH

 

[ChrisRD]

BTW, I've never owned a Hamilton hood so without a sketch I didn't want to comment on that question. My feeling is that the wiring should be fine provided it's not running really close to the halides, but you may want to ask about that in the General Reefkeeping Discussion forum or the DIY forum...