Variable/Random Lighting and Intensity for SPS

[this is me]

Hi,
We pretty much know that random flow is beneficial for SPS. But what about lighting? The sun don't shine at the same intensity everyday year round. Has anyone have tried to simulate this over their SPS tank?
My tank is full of SPS frags at the moment. I'm using LED and can be controlled by my profilux. I'm thinking of setting up the variable lighting on the controller to simulate nature a little better. Any experience with this?

 

[chrishayes]

I think its a neat gimmick. I dont think it much matters to the coral. As long as they get adequate par for an adequate amount of time then theyll grow healthy and happy whether theres a cloud or not.

That said, its a cool gimmick that would add to viewing pleasure in my book. I like how the new radion syncs with the vortechs to create storms and whatnot. Would be cool to watch on a rainy day but im tellin ya, when its crappy outside that when I like to look at my tank and imagine the perfect warm 12 hours of sunshine in the equitorial region my corals come from!

I do see merit in the slow ramping of intensity over harsh steps from dawn/full blast/dusk. Anyway to keep shock and instability to a minimum is welcomed by me. I think im going to get my feet wet with a controlable diy led setup for my fuge so that I can ramp up growth when its needed and limit it when im not home to tend to it. Plus I just wanna play with another toy!

 

[this is me]

Are you saying nature is a gimmick as well? I think people think variable lighting is a gimmick because up until recently, no lights were able to be dimmed and controlled like LEDs can. For example, a fixed speed pump will work in this hobby too and 10-15 years ago, these were all we used. Now all the high end pumps are variable speed and controllable.

I agree on the benefit of slow ramping of intensity. Notice how the clams suddenly retract their mantle when the MH suddenly shut off and the LPS polyps as well. I can't prove that it's unhealthy for the critter but it just unnatural. The sun don't just suddenly disappear at high noon.

 

[chrishayes]

Hey, im not saying that theres no merit in variable lighting, quite the opposite but my corals tell me that even a qiuck on off situation really doesnt bother them on a level that matters. I can see if you were turning your halide on and off multiple times a day but thats just not the norm. Corals are plenty happy under most lighting setups so adding variability to it isnt needed nor proven to be better.

I call it a gimmick because it is. As you said people have been keeping coral just fine under constant laminar pumps and on off mh lighting and others for years with good results. I like the idea of the gimmick but I just dont think its neccesary. Thats all.

That said, if I were in the market of leds for main tank lighting, and im not, I would welcome variable intensitys. Its just another cool gadget to play with. As to whether this is better for coral I dont know, im not a scientist but you also need to realize that at peak intensity, the sun produces far more par than our lights do so if it were blazing like that in our tanks or even in nature day in and day out, the coral would adapt just as it does to our tank lighting. I feel our tank lighting is a median amount of light that the coral gets used to. It doesnt have the peaks and valleys of natural light at the equator but provides enough median par to satisfy the corals photsynthetic needs and really, thats all they want.

 

[dzhuo]

Notice how the clams suddenly retract their mantle when the MH suddenly shut off and the LPS polyps as well. I can't prove that it's unhealthy for the critter but it just unnatural.

There is nothing unnatural about a clam react to a "thread". The sudden change of light intensity happens way often then you think in nature and that's how clams evolve to handle it the way they do. Every time a (largish) fish swim by (the sense is from the shadow), clams will retract their mantle as a safety measure for protection. This probably happens a dozen times daily.

Having said that, if your lighting set up allows you to slowly ramp up and down the intensity, it will probably help. If you don't already have such a set up, I am not sure if getting one with the sole purpose of wanting this feature is worth it.

There is also evidence that multiple on / off lighting cycles have shown to be beneficial to zooxanthellae (at least for certain corals).