Peak Photo Period - Stony Corals

[watdachuck]

I am curious to know the photo period that other Reefers expose their stony corals to in their aquariums. There are obviously many factors related to the ultimate impact on that duration including lighting type, distance from surface, light color etc.

For this poll I am defining the photo period to be the duration lighting intensity is at least 75% of your peak output.

 

[ReeferEric]

I was running peek for four hours but have taken it down to about three hours due to some odd reason of bleaching corals. It also could be a good idea to lower peak hours overtime and then bringing them back up so they can adjust accordingly if that makes any sense. LOL

 

[Reef Pets]

Full light for 10 hours. Metal Halides.

 

[DavidBowie]

Depending on the type of lights you run. For instance the store I work in has a 300 gallon where I have a reefbrite strip on 9 hours a day, 16 3ft t5's run for 7 hours a day, and halides for 4 hours. In the t5's 8 of the 16 put off growth par. Previously the display was a 180 and we ran the halides from open to close 8 hours.

 

[hatfielj]

I've only been running my halides for 4 hours a day and I'm getting great color and okay growth. Of course, they are 20K bulbs, so that might be part of the reason for the slow growth. I'm thinking about slowly increasing it to maybe 5 or 6 hours, but not sure its necessary.

 

[RandoReefer]

I run my Radion Gen3's at 90% intensity, 20K temp, from 11:00-17:00 (6hr peak). Seeing great growth and color this far.

 

[TheReefKeeper]

Full light for 10 hours. Metal Halides.

WOW MH 10hrs interesting

All MH only no supliments at all they go on and off noting in front of them or behind em?

 

[goldy26]

i've got radion G2's on my tank. it's on a custom cycle that runs at roughly 2.5 hour intervals, gradually turning up to 12k and then down to 20k at night. i have to say that i really like the color and growth that i'm getting from it. they are set so that the 12 and 14k spectrums are at 50% intensity.

 

[hatfielj]

Don't know if anyone has ever studied this in relation to reef tanks, but there is a lot of data already out there for the solar panel world for designing systems. They use a figure known as peak sun hours which is expressed in KWh/m2/day. It essentially is a measure of how long the sun is at its most useful strength for help in figuring out how much power a solar panel system can produce on average. These numbers of course vary throughout the year as the earth rotates around the sun. If you look at data for places where our corals come from (for instance I looked up Vanuatu) you can see what the peak hours per day are. Vanuatu has a range of 3.7 up to 6.9. So, I'm assuming this has some translation into coral reefs and what they use in terms of sunlight. IF so, you can see there's quite a bit of variation. However, usually not more than approximately 7 hours of "peak" sunlight. To me this means running our max intensity light anywhere in that range is probably acceptable. Again, I don't know if anyone has already studied this, but it would make a great research project if not

 

[Absynth27]

Is anyone using AI 52's. What are your settings and photo period?

Any advise would be great.

 

[plumber dude]

Yes I am running hydra 52's. Not sure if the picture will show but I tried to upload my settings.

 

[Jayellul]

Halide 8hrs with T5 for 12hrs

 

[prime8reef]

I'm running led over a shallow reef. 20g long to be exact.I've read into and studies up on photoinhibition and it's effects on Sony corals& the zooxanthellae they host.With out going into a full blown over post, I'll cut to the short of it...I run my lighting schedule as such:-Blues come on two hours before the whites-Whites on for one hour -Whites off for one hour-Whites on for two hours-Whites off for one hour-Whites on for two hours-Whites off for one hour-Whites on for one hour-Whites off-Blues on for two more hours then off -This, I believe gives the zooxanthellae in the corals enough usable par while lights are on and the off time is a kind of buffer to ensure that the threshold of photoinhabition is not met.Until I can upgrade lights to a fully programmable schedule, I will continue this photo period.I've been using this method for a month now and I'm already seeing better response and growth from my SPS. Colors that were not as apparent are becoming more distinguishable than before and certain corals that were colorful before but have become dominant green are beginning to exhibit their original colors again.I believe this lighting schedule, for me anyways, is more conducive to color than growth.

 

[Absynth27]

Thanks plumber dude. How are you liking them? I am still having a hard time figuring out intensities as well as photo periods with the AI 52

 

[RacingTiger03]

I run dual 150W HQI halides (18" tank depth lights 4" off water 30G tank) for 11 hours with a T5 supplement running for 13 (1 hour on each end). Maybe I need to think about dialing that back, but I recall my coral before liked it pretty well.... could explain why I could never keep acro's without them bleaching though..... LPS and nem's sure loved it though!

 

[Big Wave]

I run my Razor on high from noon to five. White T5s (Aquablue Special, Coral Plus) from one to five. Blue T5s (Blue Plus) from two to six. Razor goes all blue at eight.

prime8reef, I have always thought that artificial lighting feels unnaturally consistent. Corals often have a mix of sun and shade throughout the day in the wild. The speckled shade of mangroves is protecting some corals from bleaching.

 

[prime8reef]

Big wave, I've found that with the movement of the surface of the water and other factors, I get a nice ripple effect throughout my tank. By that I mean I see shade and light ripples that criss cross over the corals that provide, somewhat naturalistic conditions. Of course with most if not all of our corals sufficiently aquacultured, I don't think they can tell the difference or it isn't detrimental to their health. I too would like to provide conditions like those found in nature but I think the best we can do at times is more for visual appeal rather than actual impact on our animals.
Except in events such as coral spawning, I don't think reproducing natural sun and moon cycles will have any immediate effect, but that's just my opinion.
I will of course still research and observe others successes and feedback on whether they see any meaningful changes in their corals.

 

[james30ct]

I run leds for 8 hrs with t5's for 3 during midday.

 

[jackson6745]

I'm curious about those who run MH 8-10hrs. Did you have a shorter photperiod at one point? If so, what have you seen change since extending to such a long MH photoperiod? I'm running MH halide 6 1/2 hours daily, and t5 + led supplements for 12. I never actually ran MH much longer than this, curious what the benefits could be.

 

[Pirates.Reef]

I run 8 hours blue led with 2 hours fading on and 2 fading off. Whites for 4 hours with 2 fading on and 2 fading off. The fixture is a maxspect razor and have had good growth and color on the sps as well as everything else.