Mmmm, fried mushrooms

[Ram_Puppy]

that sucks... are they really to far gone to save? my rhodactus is one tuff little guy, after being bleached out completely, before moving his rock into the new tank I thought he had melted, so I decided no hurry, spent three days in the dark, when I finally saw he was still intact, he had just deformed himself or something... I moved the rock in and i still have hopes he will color back up... "crossing fingers"

[brewercm]

I had the same thing happen with some green stripes and moved them under some shaded area and they came back slowly.

[Jenn]

Sorry that happened Josh. Hopefully they will come back.

So what is the best way to acclimate your tank to more light? I am switching to MHs and T5s from pcs and have been wondering how to do this slowly without putting anyone in shock or "melting" them. Please let me know how you guys have done it in the past. Thanks.

[brewercm]

I've always heard to add the MHs at about a rate of 2 hrs a day for the first week and add 2 hours every week after until you get to where you want. If you feel like they are getting too much light and causing long term problems you can try to acclimate your lighting slower.

I just blasted mine right out from the beginning for 8 hours and had no major problems that couldn't be overcome. Not the recommended way but it worked for me, the most I had to deal with was an initial algae bloom that eventually declined.

[Jenn]

Wow, great help. Thanks Brewercm.