Dual/Double Photoperiod

[stancfii]

I googled reefcentral.com to find information, but couldn't really find anything other than posts from 2009 saying it is too hard on the bulbs.

I have a Maxspect Razor over the 40br in our bedroom, and have thought about doing a dual photoperiod:

6am-10am- lights ramp up then down
10am-4pm- blues at 1% (so I can see on the days I'm off)
4pm-8pm- another ramp up then down
8pm-6am- OFF

This would work really well for wakeup and work schedules. I don't think it would cause any problems for the LEDs, and might increase coral growth? I think the 6hr and 10hr breaks would give the coral time enough to respire. Anyone do anything similar or have any advice to offer?

 

[acabgd]

I used to do this on my nano and had no problems with SPS.

 

[Ron Reefman]

IMHO it depends on how fast or slow you ramp the lights up and down. A 4 hour photo period is kind of short to do much sunrise/sunset stuff. If you ramp up and down quickly and get a good 3 hours of appropriate PAR, you should be OK. 4 hours would probably be better. I seriously doubt you will see any benefits like improved growth from this.

 

[vette.tech]

Google 4 on 8 off