shorter photo period = faster growth
- Thread starter Ace1
- Start date
nice pics, but nothing else changed or stabilized during that time period? That's the only complaint about peoples before and after experiences, that they usually don't control for one factor, but are constantly changing stuff around all the time. Correct me if I'm wrong.
FiSHy sAy HeY
New member
I have a all T-5 tank and want to shorten my photoperiod. What should I run my T-5s at? I have them at 10 hrs now
Plan>B
New member
I would be interested to also hear if any one has changed there lights that are running T5 only frag tanks... as I am building one now and would like to hear about it.
Someone earlier in this thread was wondering if something like this would happen.... Any one else done this too?
Would be very curious if you then started to decrease the time again.
jakester
New member
I cut back from 8 to 6hr and when I woke up all my frags were colonies. This is awesome !!!
J/K
Ok, so I am going to try this on my 29 nano. It is a full sps tank with 2/ 250 watt SE with spider reflectors and no supp. lighting. One is a 14k Hamilton and the other ia a 10k Reeflux. They run at 6.5 hrs. now . I have a light loving sunset milli and a rouge milli top center and a red planet and cali tort mid tank. All 4 of them are a little light in a color and could use some deepening in color. I don't want to mess with my feeding schedule so I am going to cut back by 1 hour to start and see what that leads to.
Keep you guys posted.
J/K
Ok, so I am going to try this on my 29 nano. It is a full sps tank with 2/ 250 watt SE with spider reflectors and no supp. lighting. One is a 14k Hamilton and the other ia a 10k Reeflux. They run at 6.5 hrs. now . I have a light loving sunset milli and a rouge milli top center and a red planet and cali tort mid tank. All 4 of them are a little light in a color and could use some deepening in color. I don't want to mess with my feeding schedule so I am going to cut back by 1 hour to start and see what that leads to.
Keep you guys posted.
syedjilani
Active member
i have nothing to say just .:lol::lol::lol:
sjfishguy
Active member
I have been advocating shorter photoperiods for years. Think about it, although you get 12hrs of sunlight near the equator, the reef only really gets like 6 hrs of strong sunlight each day. When the sun is lower in the sky the light is not only weaker to begin with, but a lot of it is just reflected off the surface of the water.
Gatorluva9
New member
the corals are synthesizing more far red light which is converted by the coral from the red light that it recieves from your lights
far red light is used for plant/ coral growth, and when the coral uses it all up during the night, maximum growth is initiated
far red light is used for plant/ coral growth, and when the coral uses it all up during the night, maximum growth is initiated
grabthereef
New member
so what your saying is it has nothing to do with how long the lights are on...just how long they are off?
murfman
New member
Kinda but what they are saying is that the corals grow in periods of darkness. What is important is how much light intensity they get during the period of lighting. If you have an SPS that needs x amount of PAR and it only gets 1/2 of what is required, then it is not going to grow as quickly.
If said coral gets 1 1/2 times that PAR, it will grow and the rest of the PAR is wasted energy that the coral doesn't use.
This is the way I understand it, anyway.
jdhuyvetter
SWFMAS Event Coordinator
I've had solar tube for about 14 months now. Color was good to great last summer, but I had a lot of brown out over the winter months. Shorter days and weaker PAR. I am using PC actinic supplements (for color) and it just wasn't enough over the winter. So, I have ordered some MH retrofits with T5's to supplement the tank. I plan on running the MH about 4 hours in the winter and hopefully, not at all in the summer.
I posted some comparison pics of the corals and frags in the frag tank (lit with MH only, no actinics) to show the color difference of the same coral under different lights. Some of the pics are comparisons from last summer (peak light) to last weekend. Comparison pics are on pages 7 and 8 of the thread.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1574694&page=8
fishguy597
Member
I have a question how many people have a fuge on there tanks and how many don't ? How bad of a ph swing do you guys get? When my lights are off in the morning the last time I checked itwas at 7.9 and goes up to around 8.3.
Correct me if I'm wrong but blasting the orals with light don't the zoo's come out and protect the coral causing them to be pale? I'm just wondering I have never had great color. I have run my mh for 7 hrs a day since the beginning. Now I have some t5 actinics along with 2 400 watters and a 250.(14k) I have a 200 gal that is 24" deep. Now you guys got me thinking of cutting back to 6 hrs and down to 5 w/ the act on for 8-10 hrs.
My dad has a few 100 gal sps systems all piped together and on one of them he had 2 400 watt 14k on his tank for 12 hrs. He has always had good colors. Recently he changed them to 2 250 watters and got tremendus colors immeditally. Could it be better for me to eventually change the ballist to accomadate 250 watt bulbs? I have had pretty good growth from my corals but like I said not much for color. Btw my nitrates/ nitrites have always been close to 0.
Correct me if I'm wrong but blasting the orals with light don't the zoo's come out and protect the coral causing them to be pale? I'm just wondering I have never had great color. I have run my mh for 7 hrs a day since the beginning. Now I have some t5 actinics along with 2 400 watters and a 250.(14k) I have a 200 gal that is 24" deep. Now you guys got me thinking of cutting back to 6 hrs and down to 5 w/ the act on for 8-10 hrs.
My dad has a few 100 gal sps systems all piped together and on one of them he had 2 400 watt 14k on his tank for 12 hrs. He has always had good colors. Recently he changed them to 2 250 watters and got tremendus colors immeditally. Could it be better for me to eventually change the ballist to accomadate 250 watt bulbs? I have had pretty good growth from my corals but like I said not much for color. Btw my nitrates/ nitrites have always been close to 0.
fishguy597
Member
They are 2 4' I beleive they are 55 watts each. So they aren't a ton of light bit all combined I can send msgs into space. Btw they are the 420 nm spectrum.
fishguy597
Member
Btw my actinics are on for 10 hrs. My dad runs his mh for 12 hrs
grabthereef
New member
thank you sir.. this is exactly the answer i was looking for.
i jus changed my t5 photoperiod from 10 hrs to 7.5 and a birdsnest and a few others are starting to deepen in color :bigeyes:
the room with the tank gets a lot of natural light all day so i dont think the corals mind the change at all.
