Acclimating Your Corals To Led Lights

By Author: Twilight mmj
Total Articles: 3

A big issue many reef hobbyists encounter when using new LED aquarium lights is coral bleaching and proper light acclimation.

Unfortunately, its often an issue you never thinking about until you have already bleached a few corals or already made numerous trips to the local fish store or your favorite reef forum. Coral bleaching is when a coral loses its symbiotic zooxanthellae (what gives them color). When corals are “stressed,” they often expel their zooxanthellae, leading to a lighter or completely white appearance (hence why we call it “bleaching.” In nature, it can be caused by a multitude of factors, including:
- Dramatic chance in water temperature
- Increased solar radiance (PAR and UV band light)
- Changes in water chemistry or salinity
- Bacterial infections
- Silt and run-off
- Herbicides, pollution and cyanide

In reef aquariums, the same factors can cause the same effect, especially an increase in light levels. Often times, switching from fluorescent light to LED aquarium lighting is a dramatic increase in PAR, so its very important to slowly acclimate your corals to your new lights.
We’ve put together this simple led aquarium lighting guide to help everyone out with acclimating their tank to a new set of lights.