sps and clams lighting question

[clamlvr]

on my tank I had 2- 400 watt ballast and 440watts of VHO as of last night only 1 ballast (Metal Halide) is working. so only half the tank gets MH and the full tank has Actinic lighting today. I have already ordered a PFO Duel 400 HQI ballast to replace the one while it gets repaired the only problem is the new ballast will not be here until late next week.

will i have to acclimate all my corals and clams again

how long can SPS and clams go with out lighting?

 

[liquid]

That may be pushing it a bit. I've seen them go a couple days w/o light but they don't like it. Any way you can move your light every day or two from one end of the tank to the other until the replacement arrives?

Shane

 

[clamlvr]

what I plan on doing is have half the tank lit for 5 hours then move the light to the other side for another 5 hours hope this does not stress them to much and I wont have to acclimate the corals again

 

[liquid]

Sounds like that should work fine. If it gets to be a pain, you probably could just have the light at one end of the tank on Thursday, the other end of the tank Friday, etc. Coral in the wild don't see sunny days every day of the year.

Shane

 

[clamlvr]

thanks

 

[Leopardshark]

sounds like a good plan. perhaphs you may want to reduce the MH 2-3 hours in order to prevent any stress when you get the ohter ballast

 

[clamlvr]

Leopardshark I run my halide for 8 hours a day. I'm going to try and keep the lighting as close as possible to that time frame in hopes of not bleaching the high corals and also to be able to continue with the same routine when I recieve the new ballast

 

[esmithiii]

You should be cool.

Ernie