Halide acclimation question (4/16 bulb?)

I'm looking for opinions. I had 120 watt LEDs that I ran 10 hours a day at about 30-40% output for 10 months.

What are the thoughts on running the haildes from 7-10 am and then again from 7-10 pm for a total of 6 hrs a day, with 9 hours downtime in between? This still gives me a full cycle, but perhaps with less shock?

Each week I will take a 1/2 to 1 full hour away from the morning cycle and add it to the evening cycle to end up with a cycle from 5 pm to 11 pm.

It's a 250 watt Hamilton ballast, reflector and 20K hamilton bulb with 6 months use.

In two days, I've already noticed 3 new mushrooms and a staghorn encrusting onto the glue.

 

Sounds like a good plan.

 

Some people run a split cycle on frag tanks. It can be okay, but for acclimation could be stressful. Also, as far as acclimation is concerned though, to a large extent, intensity is more important than time. So, I prefer layers of window screen. Add 3-4 layers, remove one every 3-5 days. Best if you have a par meter, I've found some window screen block too much light. Some stuff I tried was blocking 50%, which is too much of an increase when removed. Also if you have a meter, I'd say, adding enough to start with 20-30% less PAR than the LEDs would be a good start if possible.

 

I don't have a meter, but I have TONS of porch screening.

 

+1 nice post.
I've never heard of someone doing the split lighting like you are thinking of.
I think m2434's post is a nice approach to this that seems more natural.

 

What I did when I added my mh/ t5 fixture that replaced my t5s is I ran the t5s like normal and the mh I started with 1 hr. and every 3 days I added an hr to it. That is just what I did.
Are you running any supplemental lighting or is it just the hqi?
I think the screen idea would work great.

 

Yeah, doesn't seem to be too common lol.

 

Just the halide for now. I may add something down the road for the sole purpose of seeing into the tank when the halides are off since they won't be running as much. something cheap white LED strips with sticky backing from walmart.

 

Don't worry so much...when I switched to halides, I just cut the lighting to 3 hrs a day, and the added 1 hr a week and had no issues.

 

Well I think I'll scrap the 3hr morning cycle and just keep with the 3 hr evening cycle.

I put 3 pieces of porch screening on. I will removed one each week along with ramping up the output by 1 hour.