8 Month Overview/Update & keeping lights on more frequently?

[PhamousPhish]

My tank is about 7-8 months old. First time reefer. Everything seems happy and this was the last water check from about a month ago; will do another one soon. This tank is in my front room which doesn't get direct sunlight but does have windows around it. I run my lights from 2:30pm - 11pm at the following schedule.
All corals seem to be growing well when the lights are on but when off the coral are very closed and whole tank just doesnt look as good. I think they would all be happier with some more light.
How/what can I run to let me and my coral enjoy my tank more?
Moonlight?
Moonlight and add an extra hour of blue light? Maybe ramp up/down for 2 hrs makes sense extending each side by 1 hr?

Haven't posted or taken enough photos-

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

8.5 hours of light is fine, but you can go longer if you want, my lights run 12 hours a day, I've come across a few people that run them 14 hours day. you stay up really late lol but you have room to leave the lights on longer if you want

 

[Michael Hughes]

Nice looking tank! Corals primarily get their energy from photosynthesis, so often they close up during lights off since there's no light to collect.

I'm also a new(ish) reefer, so take my comment with a grain of salt. I'm running an 8.5 hour photoperiod on my frag tank (from 10:00 to 6:30). If you wanted some extra time to enjoy the tank, you could always add a ramp on each end as you suggested. You could also run low lights (i.e. 10% or less) during an extra hour or so. Whatever you do, I would switch to it slowly (extra 5 minutes of ramp a day?) and give the corals some time to adapt.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Coral collect light and food energy during the photoperiod. They use the dark period to process the food and energy to build and repair tissue and process and excrete waste. They are “happy” in both states and both states are required. The actual balance between light and dark involves numerous variables from coral species to light power and spectrum, from water flow to water parameters and available food.

 

[PhamousPhish]

My tank is about 7-8 months old. First time reefer. Everything seems happy and this was the last water check from about a month ago; will do another one soon. This tank is in my front room which doesn't get direct sunlight but does have windows around it. I run my lights from 2:30pm - 11pm at the following schedule.
All corals seem to be growing well when the lights are on but when off the coral are very closed and whole tank just doesnt look as good. I think they would all be happier with some more light.
How/what can I run to let me and my coral enjoy my tank more?
Moonlight?
Moonlight and add an extra hour of blue light? Maybe ramp up/down for 2 hrs makes sense extending each side by 1 hr?

Haven't posted or taken enough photos-

Coral collect light and food energy during the photoperiod. They use the dark period to process the food and energy to build and repair tissue and process and excrete waste. They are “happy” in both states and both states are required. The actual balance between light and dark involves numerous variables from coral species to light power and spectrum, from water flow to water parameters and available food.

I've got 1 mp10 I'd like to move to the back wall and replace it with an mp40 and run both on low settings.

 

[Michael Hughes]

It seems intuitive that higher intensity would require a longer dark period (i.e. shorter photoperiod) for processing. By contrast, lower intensity lights could probably run for a longer period of time.

That would be a great experiment... run two tanks with the same equipment and begin with frags of the same corals (same supplier, etc.) and run the same light spectrum on both tanks; one at a higher intensity for 8 hours, and one at a lower intensity for 12 hours. See what happens.

 

[jermzisurmom]

I run mine from 10am to 8pm...