Lighting Sequence... will this work??

[sellout007]

I want to try and avoid putting any fans on my tank to keep the temps down so I was thinking about putting my MH on for 3 hour intervals.

The intervals would be...

10:00am -- Actinic turns on

12:00pm - 3:00pm -- MH's turn on

3:01 - 5:00pm -- MH turn off

5:01pm - 8:00pm -- MH turn on.

8:01pm -- MH turn off.

10:00pm - Actinics turn off.


That gives me 6 hours of MH lighting spaced throught the day for my corals and a constant 12 hours of light for viewing and the fish. Hopefully this will help keep the heat down.

 

[jumpincactus]

I cannot say if this will work or not. Although it sounds fine to me. Think about it, does the sun shine constantly in the tropics. No it periodically goes behind the clouds. Also there are rainy seasons in the tropics too. So in real life keeping a reef tank with lights on 12-14 hrs a day is not a true represenation of life in the ocean.

I personally believe that you can keep a reef with less lighting times than a lot of us use. Just as long as what lighting it is getting is good high intensity lighting. And with your MH you are getting the right intensity

 

[ItsMee]

I think the more the MH bulbs have to fire, the less life they will have...but I could be wrong.

 

[sellout007]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7036276#post7036276 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jumpincactus
I cannot say if this will work or not. Although it sounds fine to me. Think about it, does the sun shine constantly in the tropics. No it periodically goes behind the clouds. Also there are rainy seasons in the tropics too. So in real life keeping a reef tank with lights on 12-14 hrs a day is not a true represenation of life in the ocean.

I personally believe that you can keep a reef with less lighting times than a lot of us use. Just as long as what lighting it is getting is good high intensity lighting. And with your MH you are getting the right intensity

This was exactly my line of thinking as well. Ive read several articles that say that reefs really only get 4 hours of intense lighting throught a given day. Or something along those lines. And anything drastically over that is a waste of lighting. Which is also right up my alley as I love how the tank looks with just the actinic on.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7036279#post7036279 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ItsMee
I think the more the MH bulbs have to fire, the less life they will have...but I could be wrong.

This was one of my concerns. That the bulb or ballast might get worn out. But I figured 2 hours inbetween would give the ballast enough time to recoup and what not. I wasnt so sure how much the bulbs would be affected.