split light cycle
- Thread starter kreef82
- Start date
john rochon
New member
It will shorten life span of lamps/ballasts. Why would you run a split cycle anyways? no benefit in doing so. My belief is to try to mimic true nature
as much as possible.
as much as possible.
I split my light cycle a few weeks ago. I was running 12/12 and now run 9AM-2PM then 4PM-9PM. I thought my light cycle may have been too long and I didn't want to cut into the time I get to see the tank. There has been no change in growth or color yet. My PH is pretty steady so I've noticed no change in that regard either. It's the MH version of a cloudy afternoon. LOL. I have heard of others doing this as well.
The thought behind a split cycle is that after hours of photosynthesis the coral will get its fill of nutrients and won't except any more. So you give it a rest then "feed" it a second time so it fills up twice. I'm sure I'm dumbing this way down, and not for your sake, but because I can't explain it any better.
But I've never done it so I'm looking for first hand experience. The second advantage is I'm not home during the day so its kind of wasted viewing hours.
kevl
New member
Simple fix - just set your photo period to start later in the day so that when you come home the lights are bright. I start my main lighting stage late afternoon so that it extends into the evening for me to see
I dunno,I've personally made it a point to mimic natural as much as possible in my new LED build and it seems to be paying off with regaining a lot of color I lost before... I now only run max intensity for 3 hours (12 hour period but only a 3 hour high noon blasting basically)
Granted the increase in color could also be stemming from increasing spectrum too... I'm even getting like yellow polyps to blast out now so it's a nice change
Granted the increase in color could also be stemming from increasing spectrum too... I'm even getting like yellow polyps to blast out now so it's a nice change
