shorter photo period = faster growth

[Ace1]

Has anyone noticed increased growth once shortening the photo period and/or cutting out the moonlights?

i recently shortened my photoperiod back to 7 hours and STOPPED the moonlights and it seems like im getting good growth spurts, could be totally unrelated BUT the nights where i cut the moons seems to create more PE ALL day as well? i have noticed this over the course of 2 weeks

Crazy theories:
Could the coral be using more light during the photoperiod as a way of taking advantage of available light after total darkness for 14 hours?
Or could they be feeding more at night and/or processing nutrients during the darkness

whatever the case ima keep it here

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

from what i understand the corals zooxanthelae can only absorb and convert so much light, at which point the coral becomes "tired" for lack of a better word....perhaps shortening the photoperiod allows the coral enough rest to recover and therefor can focus more energy toward growing the following day..most have said that your halides only need be on for a max of 5 hours a day anyway...the rest of the time it can be supplemental actinics etc...

 

[Ace1]

yeah it makes sense cuz in nature the sun is in constant motion and doesnt light every coral at every angle all day.. We are usually taught that the more the better but thats not always true.

 

[plancton]

My corals are looking better with 10 hours of actinic instead of 12 and 6 hours of daylight instead of 8, but at the same time I did this because I got new bulbs and they are brighter at the begining, so I really can´t tell, my theory is that everytime the bulbs get older you´re gonna need more lighting hours because the spectrum is not gonna be as good as new so corals might need more time to assimiliate it.

Am I making any sense?

Another interesting thing: I did lights out for 4 days, it had no negative effect on my corals, some of them lost a lil tiny bit of color but regained it really fast and became even more colorful than before just within a week after lights out. I´m planning on doing 3 days lights out every month to fight dinoflagellates, this also helps reduce any kind of algae.

 

[Reefer08]

5 hours of metal halide are perfect for my sps. I plan on running my actinics for 7 hours and mh for 5.

 

[A.T.T.R]

i used to run split days before i converted to 10 hour straight ( at night because of heat)

this was several propsystems and i am proud to say... no difference

 

[gbreynol]

I was running my MHs for 9 hours and recently cut it to 7 hours. I now have much greater polyp extension, and a wider array of coloring on the colors.

 

[kaserpick]

This is interesting. I'm currently running 10 hrs halides (that's all I have), and I've got good growth and color. If there is a potential for even better growth and color, I might consider cutting back...

 

[SunnyX]

I lowered my photo period and my corals are looking and doing great. My T5 blues are on for 10hrs, while my daylight's are on for 5hrs.

If I keep my lights on any longer my corals will fry!

 

[plancton]

But what about when bulbs get older?, my logic is to leave the lights longer when the bulbs get older.

 

[hatfielj]

Just to add my experience to this thread... I recently cut my photo period back to 4.5 hours daily from the 7 hours I had previously. I did this about 2-3 weeks ago and I am now starting to notice new growth in corals that had previously been doing very little and I've also started noticing better colors. This could easily be do to a combination of other factors such as improving water parameters (I also recently added a bunch of new live rock several weeks ago), so its hard to say what the real explanation is, but it very well could be the photoperiod based on what others are saying.

 

[an411]

This is an interesting concept. hopefully there will be more people that can contribute there own thoughts on the situation. Maybe the electric bill can get a rest after all

 

[bosborn1]

I've been running my halides at almost 11hours per day. I am going to slowly roll them back to 8 I think. One reason I run them longer in the winter is they help add heat to the tank. During the summer I run them 8 hours.....Come to think of it I haven't had the same growth lately either....Might from other things though.

 

[chris4869]

I notice a big improvement in growth and colors too when I cut down my T5 daylight photoperiod down to ~7 hours (used to be 10+). I've been frying my corals all these time.

 

[NyReefNoob]

i had cut back to 6 hr's on mh antics 9 hr's and moonlights for 12 hr's i have been getting better color with running mh for a lower period of time

 

[plancton]

again, what happens when the bulbs get older? should the photoperiod be longer then?, cuz I have the impression that with less intensity and changing spectrum because of the bulbs getting older would need more time to absorb the light.

 

[rutz81]

I only run mine for 6.5. Actinics are on for 9. My corals looked worse when I was running 9-10 hours previously. I slowly lowered the amount of hours until I found the sweet spot, IMO, anyway.

 

[deep6er]

about a month ago i changed my MH from 8 to 6 hours. And my Actinics from 10 to 12 hours. I think they looking better.

 

[jonrx]

Will try this starting tomorrow.

Go from 11 hours to 8 and see what happens.

 

[ludiNano]

I run my lights Actinic 6 hours on/ MH 5 hours on.---- 6 hours dark then starts all over again. So i get 2 lighting cycles a day.