4 on 8 off light cycle

[NothingbutNANO]

I was looking around and I cannot find any concrete evidence, but some at "another" forum said that the 12/12 works really well for BTA growth. I would have to guess the same. I know that some of my corals retract and curl after that long under any light, yet anemone's seem to open and stay until light turns off. Just a matter of algea growth then.

 

[Mikeygo1]

Sorry for the delay, I have been seeing a lot of growth in my sps, but I can not tell about my zoe's I seem to have something nibaling on them. My Acans are growing well, but no notable increase in growth. It seems that the coral that are more dependent on light are growing at a faster rate, but I am now changing my lighting back to 8 on 18 for a few months to check my results. If I do go back to 4 on 8 off I will be keeping the sump the way it is now ( I have had a lot of growthe in there).

 

[Mikeygo1]

By the way my fish do not seem to care at all, and the inverst seem to be doing well they come out when the lights go out and clean up the tank like always. I will keep an eye on the thread and answer any questions.

 

[organism]

Does anyone know if the 4/8 cycle would also be beneficial for increased anemone growth?

From what I've heard about propagating anemones the best thing seems to be feeding them like crazy, a 4/8 light cycle probably wouldn't work as well but who knows...

 

[j.p. harrington]

i seen someone said they had a 12/12 best for BTA growth not sure on that

but on my 75 gallon which is 1 year old now

if had crazy crazy growth since i switched up to my current 5 bulb t5 setup
have a current nova extreme pro fixture with stock bulbs running 12/12 and have a 54watt hagen glo with 18k bulb in it i turn on about 12-4pm ive had so much growth withing the last few months that im having to upgrade tank.

i have mainly z's/p's since im addicted to them but also have lps and sps that are growing very very fast as well

 

[Pickupman66]

I ahve been reading about this on several other forums. so I decided to try it myself to see what difference it made in my tank. I did it a little differently and maily to reduce teh heat. I have a 180 with 3x250wt MH 20k bulbs (plusrites) and 4x39wt t-5's that are actinics (wavepoint coral growth bulbs). my schedule is as follows:

6:30a actinics on
6:45 MH on, Actinics off
11:45a MH off, actinics on
5pm MH on, Actinics off
9pm MH off actinics on
10pm actinics off.

Overall my tank gets alot of light, but only 9 hours of intense light from the halides. the rest is on teh low intensity blue spectrum and I am loving the results. I am getting incredible growth out of Zoanthids, all my SPS are rocking with great PE and showing good growth. some more than others. Good color on all corals. But most of all, I ahve noticed a spike in my coralline algae growth. it has taken off and grows everywhere. from the tank walls, to the snail and crab shells, old frag plugs on the bottom, plumbing. its everywhere. look at these shots. the first from April 1st. the 2nd fom june 1st.

most notable on the overflow columns, you can truly see the growth. also in the zoanthids. I did this experiment first to see if there was any truth to it. I also wanted to find a way to have less heat during the middle of the day. this works really good for me and my chiller and electric bill thanks me.