acclimating tank to new lights

i'm switching from 4X54W (2 10,000K, 2 actinic) to 4 X54W T5 (actinics) + 2 150W 14,000 MH. basically it's going from 216W to 516W.
how do i acclimate my tank and it's residents (mainly the corals) to the new light?
(right now my lights my actinics are on 12 hours and my daylights are on 10 hours when the actinics come an hour before and an hour after the daylights).

 

There are two ways to go about this (that I have done at least..)

The first is to just reduce your photoperiod on the halides to one hour a day for a few days. Then move to two hours for a few days, and so on until you reach your normal length. I would say that the t5's can stay on their regular schedule since that is what the corals are used to.

The other way is to put layers of window screen under the lights. Every few days, for a couple of weeks, remove one layer of screen.

I personally like just shortening the photoperiod.

Hope this helps.

Ivan

 

+1 on the above

 

it helped a lot. thank you!!

 

pics of new lights

 

the fixture is the marineland 24 hours system. got it from a fellow 3reef member - tingleyl.
moonlights on (actinic on picture - in about 13 minutes)

 

true blue looks a bit green using my phone's camera but it's super blue. (MH on in about 55 minutes)

 

i'm not going to post a picture of the MH yet because for some weird reason one of the bulbs is yellow (?????). i got a new bulb from reef geek and i will post the picture ASAP.
all i have to say for now is that my corals LOVE it. i just saw polyps i've never seen before!! amazing!

 

MH bulbs will burn yellow for the first couple of hours. Don't worry..it will look better!

 

i sure hopes so. the other bulb works just fine.