4 on 8 off light cycle
- Thread starter steveb
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pickupman66
5000 Club Member
I subscribed to this a few days ago..
starting today, my tank will be on a modified lighting schedule. The actinics will come on at 6:45am to give a sunrise effect for the Halides to come on from 7-11am. then the actinics will run from 11am to 5pm. then the Halides again from 5-9pm with the actinics to come on till 9:30. while the halides are running, the actinic wont. we are mainly trying this for heat discipation. having the hot lights off during the hottest part of the day. I run 4x 56 watt t-5's as my actinics and 3x 250 watt halides. the tank is a 180 measuring 6 ft x 24 x 24.
I have zoanthids and SPS in the tank. I already get good growth from the zoanthids, so this will be interesting to see. for fish, I have three Tangs, Aussie Perc, Cardinal, six line wrasse, Pyramid butterfly and a pygmy angel.
starting today, my tank will be on a modified lighting schedule. The actinics will come on at 6:45am to give a sunrise effect for the Halides to come on from 7-11am. then the actinics will run from 11am to 5pm. then the Halides again from 5-9pm with the actinics to come on till 9:30. while the halides are running, the actinic wont. we are mainly trying this for heat discipation. having the hot lights off during the hottest part of the day. I run 4x 56 watt t-5's as my actinics and 3x 250 watt halides. the tank is a 180 measuring 6 ft x 24 x 24.
I have zoanthids and SPS in the tank. I already get good growth from the zoanthids, so this will be interesting to see. for fish, I have three Tangs, Aussie Perc, Cardinal, six line wrasse, Pyramid butterfly and a pygmy angel.
pickupman66
5000 Club Member
well after 5 days of the modified cycle, I will say i LOVE IT so far. i can see a noticeable difference in the heating of the water, and from what I can tell, all of my sps seem to be polyped out better.
greg0385
Valuable Member
this is great news and i will be following along to see some long term usage to see if it pays off. anything thats better for growth and less heat is worth checking into.
pickupman66
5000 Club Member
OK. so I just now remembered to update this thread. I am still on my modified cycle and LOVE IT!!!!! I get to see the coral and fish before I go to work and also when I get home for a few hours before bed. I ahve not seen any growth retardation in ANY of my corals. if anything, I have seen Wonderful Growth in most everything. my Zoanthids are taking over that portion of the tank. BUT, the one thing that has the most noticeable improvement is the Coralline Algae growth. this stuff is growing like MAD.
Case in point. look at this image from June 1st. Notice the growth in the overflows. it is also growing on anything on the sandbed such as crabs, snails, empty shells, empty frag plugs etc...
Case in point. look at this image from June 1st. Notice the growth in the overflows. it is also growing on anything on the sandbed such as crabs, snails, empty shells, empty frag plugs etc...
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