replacing MH bulbs

[samiam_orami]

Hey all ...

I'm going to be replacing my 250watt MH bulbs next week for the first time.
I've been using the 12K Sunburst for over a year now and am going to try the 20K CoralVue bulbs ...

Considering the fact that my old bulbs have probably lost most of thier intensity ... what is the best way to acclimate the tank to the new bulbs ?

samiam

[matt]

You might search reefs.org to see if Sanjay has done some tests on these bulbs. From what I remember, the 12k sunburst have very low PAR, which means that even though the coralvue are 20k, they might have more intensity. I'd just put 'em on and see how it looks. If it's a lot more intense, lower your photoperiod. But check for an article testing them; it might be you don't have to do anything.

The other issue with 20k bulbs is sometimes they have different ballast requirements; have you checked to make sure your current ballast will run them?

[samiam_orami]

As far as I can tell, I've found out that the coralvue work better on an electronic ballast but should work with my magnetic one ...

The info on this thread helped me decide to go with the coralvue :
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=254667&highlight=coralv ue+par

I'm currenly running the MH on a 10hr photoperiod
At the moment; when I get my new bulbs, the plan is to go to a 4hr photoperiod ... increasing 1hr every few days till I get back to 10hrs ...

[PeeJ]

Cnidarianreef.com is the original website where all the testing was done. Might be easier to go to the site rather than browsing through the forums.