Acclimating from low light to 400 Watt metal Halide lighting

[Jacob1]

I have a 50 Gallon Tank that has live rock in it that was under low light for a couple of weeks before I bought it. the rock has a lot of porites on it as well as some favites and what looks to be an encrusting form of merulina. I would like to avoid bleaching these corals but only have MH lighting on th etank for now. Light is 10 inches above the surface of the water. I put the light on for an hour last night. Turned it on for two hours this morning and an hour this afternoon. Should I try increasing the photo period gradually or start with a average photo period and put some screening over the tank to dim the light as the corals acclimate.

Any suggestions?

 

[Nathan1]

Screening the light might be your best bet.

There is some speculation that the duration of light is also important, and if you blast your corals for 60minutes with high intensity light, it's not as beneficial as 12 hours of lower light.

-Nathan