Recommended PHoto Period.

[Sohal Tang Tim]

tank 100 gallon 4ft x 24 x 20
LPS dominated with SPS to be added in few months....
Lights : 1 x 6bulb T5 ATI fixture plus 2 reefbrite 4ft strips plus 2 kessils on blue only spectrum...

With the above what photo period do you recommend....LPS only...
I am thinking 3 hours blues 4 hours ATI T5 3 hours blues again
Alternative I am thinking increase the ATI to 6 hours with 2 hours blue on each end

I dont want to burn the corals...and blues look bloody amazing without the ATI fixture on....

Pls advise,,, This is darn confusing... Thanks, Tim

I have always run other tanks on 8 hours high light and hour actinic on each end so 10 hours total.

 

[keychild486]

Hey sohal. I have a mixed reef and also have a hybrid light fixture. i have two sets(4 bulbs) of t5 retro fits with two ai hydra 26 in the middle (blues and violet only). I run my blue plus and actinic from 11am-5pm (6hrs) and Blue plus with coral plus from 12pm-4pm to kinda of mimic daylight since the coral plus is so white. My ai hydras run from 8am-8pm with a 3 hour ramp up and ramp down. right now the intensity of the led is at 30% when done acclimating it will peak at 55%. I hope this info helps.

 

[Sohal Tang Tim]

if I am reading this right you are running 12 hours a day but only 4 or 5hrs of higher intensity light?

 

[keychild486]

correct

 

[keychild486]

https://youtu.be/fBktpJ3umAs

This video will help you more to understand how corals work with light.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Coral's zooxanthellae can do photosynthesis for 4 to 6 hours with enough light (think 9 or 10am until 2 or 3pm over a reef). More than this is not harmful, but it doesn't due much for the coral. Less than this can hurt the coral's food supply by not giving the algae enough time to do the photosynthesis. Sunrise and sunset don't count unless very close to midday high levels.