Reverse Lighting and Growth

[Alarmguy66]

I have a 180 gallon tank with a 55 gallon sump. Half of the sump has a 4" DSB and is planted with Sea Grass, Cheato and Caulerpa. Sump is lit with 2 6700k bulbs I got from Home Depot.

Prior to this week I have used the 24 hour lighting scenario to prevent the Caulerpa from going sexual, and this has worked famously to that end. This week I went to a reverse lighting schedule (to combat a high Ph problem), lights on the sump come on at 7 pm, go off at 7 am.

What Ive noticed is that after just a few days, I have more growth from my macroalgaes than I have seen in quite some time.

Anyone else ever notice this?

 

[graveyardworm]

It makes sense. There are important metabolic processes which occur primarily during the dark period. Plants have evolved over millions if not billions of years to cope with darkness, darkness is almost as important a light.