will it be to big of a shock/change?

[chroniccoral35]

I currently have a 10g, two false percula clowns, one purple stripe mushroom, one green fuzzy mushroom, one leather devil hand, one open brain, one green star polyp and a green goniopora. I have a 18W x2 coralife lighting right now, and I've been thinking about getting this new clamp on light because I am sick of glass top =/ but its 150W. If I buy this will it shock my clowns? or corals? will I have to reduce the amount of time its on and more off? the full light name is...
JBJ K-2 Viper 150W HQI Clamp on Lighting Fixture

 

[chroniccoral35]

Anyone? lol

 

[fishfreak1242]

It might a bit of a change if you change the fixtures. What you can do is when you normally turn the lights on in the morning is change fixtures before you turn them on and then put some egg crate over the tank with some screen that are used for screen doors or something and put that over the egg crate. This will shade the tank and then after an hour or two you can take of the screen and leave the egg crate and then after another hour you can remove the egg crate and it shouldnt affect your corals. BYW, egg crate is known as light diffusers at home depot/lowes.

 

[alohami]

Going from 36 watts of PC to 150 watts of halide is a huge change! In fact, 150 watts on a 10 gallon is overkill, IMO. I had 150 watts over a 16 and it was a bit much. Now, a 70 watt would be much better. You can do what you want, but you will want to take time to let your corals acclimate to the new light. Fishfreak has the right idea, but you will definitely want to take it a lot slower. Corals cannot acclimate to the new light in a matter of hours, and egg crate blocks very little light by itself. I have heard of people using screening, but they've used several layers and removed one layer at a time over several days.
I went from 80 watts of PC to 150 watts of halide, and I reduced my lighting schedule down to just a couple of hours to start and then every day I would increase it a little bit until I got back to my normal lighting schedule. I don't recall exactly how I did it, but I know I spread it out over a week or so.
Just watch your corals for signs of stress and back it down a little if you need to. It's better to err on the side of caution than to bleach or burn everything. As long as you take your time, it will be fine.

 

[grabbitt]

15 watts per gallon is a lot to take in, especially being MH.
I would look into the 70 watt MH set-ups.

 

[chroniccoral35]

Yeah, it is a really big change...I'm going to my LFS today so I may try to find a nice 70W light, that clamps on...I don't like glass top, thanks for the advice everyone.

 

[alohami]

Viper also makes the clip-on in a 70w. Also, Current USA makes a 70w Sunpod fixture that is really nice, and it is 20" wide so will fit a 10g perfectly. Either one would be a nice choice, but I liked my Sunpod!

 

[chroniccoral35]

I've made up my mind...
The 70W viper HQI is a great light for my 10g that is true, but I know I would probably have heat issues with it, my temp. is at 76. With the glass top and 18W x2 coralife light. I most likely will just let the corals grow in this 10g...and light, though I don't like the glass top. Just until I can afford to either buy a 28g bio-cube or spend the money for my 30g tank, but that means I'll need everything ....skimmer/powerheads/filter/light ect. thanks for the reply's and help and everyone.

 

[bs21]

I would recommend the 150w if you were doing sps but for moderate light corals that will be pretty strong. I have the 70w viper on my 12g and have been very happy with it.

 

[chroniccoral35]

Yeah, I plan to get into sps corals in the future, right now..I'm not ready for that. I *MIGHT* buy the 70W viper, but I'm afraid of the temp. shooting up, now I know I'll have to acclimate the corals to the light...but thats easy, I have the 150 to spare for the light but not the 200 something for the chiller

 

[bs21]

well I have the 70w like i said and the temp is only 1-2 degrees higher than it was before i had the light. I just adjusted my heater to lessen the temp swing then between light on and off.

 

[chroniccoral35]

yeah, something to think about then, I may buy the 70W in a few weeks.
a week ago I did my levels, due to the water I use I don't have any phos's, but my nitrate was 80! and Sal. was sky rocketed...I wake and my firefish goby and cleaner shrimp are dead and both of their heads were eaten off, by the clowns probably...because they were dead. The nitrate is now down to 10, and Sal. at 1.025, and I just acclimated my new cleaner, but I'm not buying another goby for awhile...It was all my fault, I've been working all week for 2 weeks and forgot to do changes, and you just can't do that with a 10g tank...lesson learned lol, but yeah I'll probably buy the 70W soon.