Does 5 hours a day of light really increase growth?

[Reef Hammer]

Very interested to see what happens. Thank you for taking this on!

 

[Swav8tor]

Following!

 

[KenO]

Following

 

[vetteguy53081]

Great experiment and interest from others

 

[Ferrell]

Interesting experiment. Following

@Dana Riddle did extensive research on porites in Hawaii and if my grandpa memory serves me correctly they exhibited photo inhibitions at about 6 hours at max light. Someone help me out here, was it a MACNA talk or a published paper?

 

[Nicholas Dushynsky]

Following along. I hope the experiment can give some clear answers either way and not just a little difference. That way I can have my lights on before I go to work then off while at work and enjoy again when I get home.

 

[ReeferB28]

okay I will feed reef roids becuase thats what I have. I dont want to spend too much money on this if I can avoid it. I have an extra LED and T5 fixture. Im thinking T5 though if thats what was used.

The only LED light I ever used, was Gen. 3 and 4XR15 or XR30. So, just stick to the T 5.
Unfortunately, the bulbs are not all created equal. I Used ATI

 

[PoeticInjustice]

Very interesting. Following.

 

[FREAKINRICAN69]

Okay. I had some time so here is what I have done so far. I will set up lighting and the barricade later. The container is a shallow planter.

fOLLOWING AND CANT WAIT TO SEE THE RESULTS. tHANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO DO THIS...

 

[asting]

The only LED light I ever used, was Gen. 3 and 4XR15 or XR30. So, just stick to the T 5.
Unfortunately, the bulbs are not all created equal. I Used ATI

Why does the experiment have to mimic your lighting setup exactly?

 

[Dana Riddle]

Interesting experiment. Following

@Dana Riddle did extensive research on porites in Hawaii and if my grandpa memory serves me correctly they exhibited photo inhibitions at about 6 hours at max light. Someone help me out here, was it a MACNA talk or a published paper?

 

[TexasReefer82]

What are you measuring to determine a difference in growth? Number of polyps? Weight of the frag/colony?

Are you planning on doing any replicates? Ideally you've start with 3-5 samples in each lighting compartment. That way you'll be far more certain that an observed difference is real and not chance.

 

[Johniejumbo]

Good experiment. Ill follow along too!

 

[Dana Riddle]

Interesting experiment. Following

@Dana Riddle did extensive research on porites in Hawaii and if my grandpa memory serves me correctly they exhibited photo inhibitions at about 6 hours at max light. Someone help me out here, was it a MACNA talk or a published paper?

That was a year-long project that eventually became a MACNA presentation, although I did publish some previous results.
The good type of Photoinhibition - Dynamic Photoinhibition - is shunting of light energy away from the photosynthetic apparatus by xanthophylls. It has been established that this can occur quickly (minutes) thus when conducting PAM fluorometer experiments the time between measurements is 20 minutes. Energy is shunted away only when light intensity exceeds the photosynthetic Saturation Point and reached Dynamic Photoinhibition. The goal of any hobbyist (when it comes to lighting that promotes maximum growth) is to provide enough light to just reach the Saturation Point and avoid Photoinhibition.
I look forward to the results of this experiment and hope light intensity measurements are included - this data is invaluable when evaluating results. Without them, results are anecdotal at best - but that is not to say that they are without value and could set the stage for further research.

 

[Stuartmercer]

What are you measuring to determine a difference in growth? Number of polyps? Weight of the frag/colony?

Are you planning on doing any replicates? Ideally you've start with 3-5 samples in each lighting compartment. That way you'll be far more certain that an observed difference is real and not chance.

thats what im doing

 

[Stuartmercer]

That was a year-long project that eventually became a MACNA presentation, although I did publish some previous results.
The good type of Photoinhibition - Dynamic Photoinhibition - is shunting of light energy away from the photosynthetic apparatus by xanthophylls. It has been established that this can occur quickly (minutes) thus when conducting PAM fluorometer experiments the time between measurements is 20 minutes. Energy is shunted away only when light intensity exceeds the photosynthetic Saturation Point and reached Dynamic Photoinhibition. The goal of any hobbyist (when it comes to lighting that promotes maximum growth) is to provide enough light to just reach the Saturation Point and avoid Photoinhibition.
I look forward to the results of this experiment and hope light intensity measurements are included - this data is invaluable when evaluating results. Without them, results are anecdotal at best - but that is not to say that they are without value and could set the stage for further research.

english pls?

 

[TexasReefer82]

english pls?

I think what Dana Riddle is saying is that it would be best if you measured light intensity as well for this experiment. It's a variable that surely has a large effect on how the corals grow. The crux of this experiment likely has something to do with reaching (or not reaching) what's called the photoinhibition point of the coral - that's defined as the light intensity above which additional light does not result in additional growth and can actually inhibit growth. Knowing the light intensity could help to understand the underlying mechanism of why this dual photoperiod works (or doesn't work, ha).

At the very least I'd say it important to NOT CHANGE the light intensity over the course of the experiment. If you're using T5 then it's easy. If you're using controllable LED fixtures then you need to set it and forget it.

 

[Stuartmercer]

I think what Dana Riddle is saying is that it would be best if you measured light intensity as well for this experiment. It's a variable that surely has a large effect on how the corals grow. The crux of this experiment likely has something to do with reaching (or not reaching) what's called the photoinhibition point of the coral - that's defined as the light intensity above which additional light does not result in additional growth and can actually inhibit growth. Knowing the light intensity could help to understand the underlying mechanism of why this dual photoperiod works (or doesn't work, ha).

At the very least I'd say it important to NOT CHANGE the light intensity over the course of the experiment. If you're using T5 then it's easy. If you're using controllable LED fixtures then you need to set it and forget it.

any other way to measure par without spending money to buy a par reader? I will just use my t5 fixture

 

[MombasaLionfish]

Following.

 

[ycnibrc]

Jason fox only run 4 hrs full spectrum and 8 hrs all blue same as wwc and their corals are dope. I run the same 444 and I'm pretty satisfied with my tank.