[Truebluereefs]

I've been running T5HO lights foe the past 8 year, I just got MH yesterday,to run over my 40 gallon aquarium.
The tank only can hold 20 gallons of water, at 8 inches. The tank is sitting no the floor.
how high should I have my lights?
What's the best corals to place in the tank to have them grow as well as giving them color?
The lights are 2x 150 W and 2 x actinic 54w*
I'm sure that I will have more latter on.

 

[ynot65]

You can grow any coral you want just pay attention to placement to avoid burning

 

[Truebluereefs]

How do I slowly acclimate the corals to the light?
And how high should I keep the light from the water?

 

[ynot65]

Start your corals low, is the MH adjustable ? If it is I would start out about 10" above and keep an eye on you tank temp.

 

[Truebluereefs]

The tank is only 8" deep and the light is about 2 feet or more above the tank.

 

[FutureDoc]

One of the best ways to acclimate to MH is to reduce the run time of the MH (I think this works best for LEDs too). If the coral is coming from a low-light tank, you might only run the MH for 2 hours and then slowly increase the duration over a couple of weeks. Because the tank is shallow, I would start at 2-3 hours depending on the type of coral.

 

[Truebluereefs]

Ok right now I have a large montipora plate cap that I have fraged some pieces from they are under a 4bulb T5HO light, and I want to move them into he tank with the MH they will be placed at the bottom of the 8" of water the tank can hold. How so I should keep the lights infor only 2 hours and go up an hour every 2 weeks?