lighting period for SPS corals

[Allmost]

has anyone experimented with extended or shortened light period and its effect on SPS corals ?

I run my actinic for 13 hours a day and full for 12 hours a day,

would lowering hte time make the SPS make more use of it and therefore color up more ?!

 

[nvdiz]

12 hours seems pretty long and unnecessary.

im not too convinced if shortening a photoperiod would cause corals to color up more, but it shouldn't hurt to try.

 

[shaggy14]

I run my halides for 6 hours a day, the vhos are on for 8. And the t5s over my frag tank are on for 8

 

[Ken Good]

I run my VHOs for 10 hours and my halides for 7 and 1/2 hours.

Ken

 

[agsansoo]

I run my VHOs for 8 hours and my halides for 6 hours in the summer months, and
run VHOs for 10 hours and halides for 8 hours in the winter months.

 

[schroder_reef]

There is a big link on this. See if this works.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1582958

i also would recommend this article.

http://www.fishchannel.com/saltwater-aquariums/aquarium-frontiers/natural-reef-light.aspx

 

[Stanley-Reefer]

I'm oldschool, but it works for me...actinics 12h and halides 10....been reefing since 97...

 

[Allmost]

Nice article

"For a rising and setting sun, the calculation can be difficult, but for a reef tank it is much easier. Reef tanks with artificial lighting have constant lighting, so it is a simple matter to multiply the total intensity of the lights by the length of time the lights are on. For example, if the lights over a reef tank are on 10 hours and generate 200 µE/m2/sec of light, the total integrated irradiance is 200 x 10 x 3600 (the number of seconds in an hour) or 7,200,000 µE/m2/sec. This is normally converted to Einsteins, so the final number is 7.2 E/m2. Equatorial sunlight over coral reefs typically generates over 50 E/m2 on a typical sunny day. This is at the water's surface, however."


how much of this makes sense to you guys ?

from what I understood, we need to strike for the balance, balance of enough sleeping time for the SPS and enough PAR or light intensity.

I'm gonna shorten my lighting period by half an hour and observe for a week see what happens.

 

[ms123]

I run my halides for 6 hours and t5 actinics for 11 hours. I used to run the halides for 10 and actinics for 12. I haven't had any negative effects due to the change.

 

[tang0v]

i got my t5s 8 hours..mh 5 hour.

 

[T-Boner]

I run my 75 sps tank with t-5 for 10 hrs and my 180 mix reef for 8 hrs with t-5 lighting both seem to be doing great!

 

[LifeAquatic]

I run my MH and Actinic from 1130am-700pm. Seems to work great for me. I cant afford the extra electricty anyway to run them 10 hrs a day. California doesnt exactly have the cheepest electric cost.

 

[sowellj]

I run my MH and Actinic from 1130am-700pm. Seems to work great for me. I cant afford the extra electricty anyway to run them 10 hrs a day. California doesnt exactly have the cheepest electric cost.

I just finished watching a documentary on Enron, amazing what they did to power prices in California. I would imagine that was a time when it was quite expensive to run a reef there.

 

[redfishsc]

Halide, 8 hours. Actinics, 12 hours for viewing purposes. I'd cut it to 10 hours but I come home on my lunch break and want to see the tank then, so the actinics come on at 11:30 just before lunch.

 

[mutateddogbone]

I read an article in a coral propagation book that SPS can only uptake 4hrs of light and need 8 hours of darkness to process this, saying that a staggered 4on8off then 4on8off period would maximize growth

 

[Touring]

I read an article in a coral propagation book that SPS can only uptake 4hrs of light and need 8 hours of darkness to process this, saying that a staggered 4on8off then 4on8off period would maximize growth

i know this is a old thread but anyone find out if this was true?