shorter photo period = faster growth

I have been on a shortened cycle for a week now. Havnt seen any change one way or the other yet. I also bumped up my temperature 1.5 degrees. The other benefit from this will be less evaperation. I have already noticed it big time. My ato reservoire needs filling every 4 days. With the shortened cycle I still had water on the 6th morning.

Another "fireside theory" for what may be taking place is less neusence algae competing with zooxanthelae. Since shortening my light cycle my glass has needed very little mag float attention and my sand is a bit whiter.
 
I am thinking about joining the shorter photoperiod club, but am tentative about the type of lighting I am currently running. I have 4x65W of PC lighting over a 55 mixed reef, with great growth from my softies, LPS, and even a few Monti caps. I currently run actinics for 12 hours, and the daylights for 10 hours.

I see mostly MH and T5 lighting photoperiods being shortened, but with the less efficient light from the PCs, would it still be beneficial to shorten?
 
After reading this thread I have reduced my photoperiod from 9 1/2 hours to 7 (I may drop it to 6). I will report any significant developments in a week or so.
 
wow cool finally someone else is on the same page as i am. i run my metal halide only 2hr a day and still have great growth and coloration!!
 
Ok I'm sold, I just took pictures of the tank tonight, I will reduce my photoperiod and post before and afters in a couple weeks.
 
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i would also want to mention 2hr of halide and 8hr of t5. i don hav pix b4 and now but i know that it has growth and coloration. i'll frag a piece right now and take pix then tak another pix again in a month from now.
 
I've read somewhere propably on here that the process of photosinthisis only needs 6 hrs of dark period to process energy produced. My LFS owners both agreed on separate occations to this.

Anyone know if this is true?

I get 12rs on display and refugium opposite times with,

6hrs PC--5.5hrs MH on 6hrs dark -- then back on for 6hr cycle, then off for 6 and well...

And i get great growth in display and refugium.
 
I tried shortening my cycle (now 8 hrs Actinic/5 hrs MH) and have been pleased with the results as well. I was giving this some thought after reading this thread and here is my take. Note this is purely "nonscientific" mind you. I have two kids and when they are going through a growth spurt I can always tell because they sleep like the dead. It seems that for kids anyway they grow in their sleep, not when they are awake and running around. I am wondering if corals are the same way? They gather the energy they need when the lights are on but the actual growth takes place when the lights are off. It makes sense then that as long as they are getting enough light to store up that energy that more time in darkness would give them more time for actual growth.

Like I said. Purely unscientific but I figured I would throw it out there.
 
I run my two 400 watt MH's six hours each overlapping for four hours my T-5s are on about 11 hours just so I can see the tank in my office at the beginning and end of my day if I am not there all day. I have been doing this for nearly two and half years since reading, somewhere, that what matters, is 4 hours of intense light per day. IDK, but it's worked OK for me???
 
very interesting thoughts.

Would be really awesome if somebody like Dana Riddle did an extensive study on this with various controls, like changing duration of both intense lighting AND ambient lighing.

Alot of people seem to run their MH lights closer to night time. What this means is that during the day when the MH is off, the room might still be getting a fair amount of ambient light. I wonder how this affects things. If the MH are turning off after midnight, the tank might not be getting nearly as much "darkness" as a natural reef.
 
I have an 8 x 54 tek light on my 120. The lights are setp as follows from front to back

Blue Plus
Super Actinic
------------------
Aquasun
Blue Plus
Aquasun
Super Actinic
------------------
Aquablue
Blue Plus

Right now i run the top 2 and bottom 2 from 9:30A to 8:30p.
I run the middle 4 from 11a to 5p.

Is this an appropriate lighing schedule for t-5's? (as I am new to them.)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14527520#post14527520 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RockyMtnReef
I tried shortening my cycle (now 8 hrs Actinic/5 hrs MH) and have been pleased with the results as well. I was giving this some thought after reading this thread and here is my take. Note this is purely "nonscientific" mind you. I have two kids and when they are going through a growth spurt I can always tell because they sleep like the dead. It seems that for kids anyway they grow in their sleep, not when they are awake and running around. I am wondering if corals are the same way? They gather the energy they need when the lights are on but the actual growth takes place when the lights are off. It makes sense then that as long as they are getting enough light to store up that energy that more time in darkness would give them more time for actual growth.

Like I said. Purely unscientific but I figured I would throw it out there.
Click to expand...

Very interesting thought, though. Would like to know if there is any real research done on that.
 
Six hours of MH a day and the lights go off around 11:30pm. This means that the tank has about 6.5 hours of complete darkness. Before I have had the lights at 7-8 hrs a day and that greatly increased algae growth. So at six hours I get to save electricity, labor to clean algae, and great looking sps.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14527520#post14527520 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RockyMtnReef
I tried shortening my cycle (now 8 hrs Actinic/5 hrs MH) and have been pleased with the results as well. I was giving this some thought after reading this thread and here is my take. Note this is purely "nonscientific" mind you. I have two kids and when they are going through a growth spurt I can always tell because they sleep like the dead. It seems that for kids anyway they grow in their sleep, not when they are awake and running around. I am wondering if corals are the same way? They gather the energy they need when the lights are on but the actual growth takes place when the lights are off. It makes sense then that as long as they are getting enough light to store up that energy that more time in darkness would give them more time for actual growth.

Like I said. Purely unscientific but I figured I would throw it out there.
Click to expand...

Unscientific but this is how it all starts, good info in my opinion.
 
true, it's the same with bodybuilding, you don't actually grow while working out or during the day, it's the sleep period that muscle growth occurs, rest is of utmost importance...maybe the same holds true throughout nature, regeneration, growth, cell division, etc. more than likely take place during periods of rest or shut down, so why not give it more time to regenerate or grow so to speak, truly a non scientific approach on my behalf but thought provoking non the least
 
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What do you think of running 2 pure Actinic for 2 hours before and 2 hours before and after the 4 main bulbs come on for 6 hours.

So 6 hours with 6 bulbs on a 75G and 10 hours in total with the pure Actinic ??

Would running pure Actinic defeat the purpose of the shorter photo period ?
 
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