corals wont open

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Dingodan

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Jan 6, 2011
Messages
153
Its been 6 days now after replacing the 14k bulb on my mh and corals still wont open back up. My old bulb was overdue for replacement and my new bulb is a 14k just like the old but more blue. Parameters all good.
 
changing bulbs can shock the corals. bulbs tend to lose PAR over time. putting a brand new bulb in suddenly increases intensity.
many folks use some sort of acclimation to protect the corals. my favorite is the window screen method:
use 3 or 4 window screens in between the bulb and the water and remove one every week or so until they are gone.
 
but...look at the sun for 30 minutes, or 8 hours....your still blind. i don't believe reducing the photo period is effective. i have no data to back that up though...just my opinion.
 
Do you think i should add screens now or just let it ride out? I wont really be able to till saturday as im out of town someone is looking after the tank for me but only for basic maintenance
 
My corals also used to upen up a bit just from when the actinic bulb turns on but they dont even do that now
 
can you raise the fixture up off of the tank a little? that would also work. at this point, i'd probably try to raise the fixture and hope for the best.
 
Fixture cant be raised its a pendant that clips on to back of the tank anything else i can do? Should i be worried about my corals dying?
 
well, i can only tell you about the experience i had when i zapped the tank with new lamps.
the corals seemed unaffected for about a week, then all of the sudden they started failing. the zoas melted away, the sps bleached out a bit, and the lps shriveled up and looked terrible.
i don't think i lost anything really. i had some large zoa colonies that were about a quarter of the size when it was all over, but they bounced back with a vengeance. everything else colored back up in the next couple months.
 
Ok thanks for the help ill see what i can do to lessen the intensity if there still in rough shape when im back on saturday
 
they sell plastic type films that cut down direct light, but you have to be careful not to take too much light away. I have never heard of screens before but that is a great idea. Hit the windows and start taking the screens out lol

this is why it is important to change your MH bulbs or t5 bulbs eveyr 6 months and not let them die out too much.
 
I moved a glass lid pannel that was over the front of the tank to under the light. There is salt build up on the glass hopefully not too much but better than nothing?
 
sure. it will help. is the lamp far enough away from the glass so it doesn't heat it up to the point of cracking it? that might be an issue, especially if there is water splashing on it.
 
I didnt think of that the light is 8 inches above it but water will definately be splashing it. Im not 100 percent sure its glass though it isnt as heavy as glass but heavier than plastic its made for fish tanks maybe acrylic?
 
Some of the polyps have now opened up a little and my tree coral looks bigger after moving that panel under the light. So there is little improvement but not much.
 
Its now been 3 and a half weeks since bulb replacement and corals still looking rough. I put the glass panel under the light and they did start to look a little better so i removed it last weekend and the corals look rough again so i put the panel back. This seems like a long time for corals to be in shock from an overdue bulb replacement.
 
Oh and my wrasse has also dissapeared dont think that would be related though but still strange
 
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