hours of lighting

[ashley]

Hi everyone. I have a question hopefully some of you can give me your opinions...so I have a 30 Gallo tank with 2ray led lights with are actinic and white and I also have a t5 actinic..I have a reef tank with soft corals and LPS and different fish.my question is how many hours should I have on the lights? Should the actinic or white be on longer? Thanks.

 

[Brian Kim]

I personally run from 6PM to 2 AM so 8 hrs a day on both my frag tank and DT
I'm using Kessil controller for my DT so it just gradually ramps it up and down during those 8 hr period and for my frag tank, I have blues only from 6-8 & 12-2am and the rest (main) from 8 to 12

 

[Robthorn]

In my opinion it is pretty difficult to replicate the sun but I do my best. Look up a sunlight chart showing the intensity of the sun by hour. It shows the percentage of sunlight at a given hour. I try to replicate that according to my max intensity. My lights run at least 12 hours but are staged and have varied intensity. The natural sun ramp is not linear meaning sunrise is not the same rate as sunset.
You can get by with 5 or 6 hours easily but I run my lights for a longer period. Great thing about staged lighting is you can run less lights longer if you want.

 

[ermartin]

I run 12hrs start with the actinic end with the actinic and decide how long you want to run them all in between If it were me i would go 1hr 8hr 1hr = 10 total you could go less

 

[ashley]

Thanks for the advice. I heard it's better to run blues longer then whites? Why do you just have blues on your frag tank?

 

[ashley]

Thanks for the advice. I heard it's better to run blues longer then whites? Why do you just have blues on your

 

[Brian Kim]

Thanks for the advice. I heard it's better to run blues longer then whites? Why do you just have blues on your frag tank?

People run blues only to stimulate dusk/dawn... I run both blues and whites from 8-12
edit: so yeah, i run blues longer but that's only because the led light I have for my frag tank has only 2 channels.

 

[NanaReefer]

People do not run blues only to simulate dusk/dawn. I suggest more research [emoji6]

 

[Brian Kim]

People do not run blues only to simulate dusk/dawn. I suggest more research [emoji6]

You are right, I should have added "some"
I am using ocean revive for my frag tank and it has only 2 channels, one all blues and other with whites and other colors, so in my case, that's the only way I can go about simulating dusk/dawn

 

[mcarroll]

[...]Look up a sunlight chart showing the intensity of the sun by hour.[...]

Sounds handy. Seen lots of "sun charts" but nothing like that. Link?

People run blues only to stimulate dusk/dawn... I run both blues and whites from 8-12
edit: so yeah, i run blues longer but that's only because the led light I have for my frag tank has only 2 channels.

People do not run blues only to simulate dusk/dawn. I suggest more research [emoji6]

Funny, I read that as "blues-only" as in running blues but leaving the other LED's off; not "blues only" as in that being the only reason to run blues.

Clarity of the english language. What a nightmare. ;)

 

[Brian Kim]

Sounds handy. Seen lots of "sun charts" but nothing like that. Link?





Funny, I read that as "blues-only" as in running blues but leaving the other LED's off; not "blues only" as in that being the only reason to run blues.

Clarity of the english language. What a nightmare. ;)

Agreed, maybe it would've been less confusing if I had put the time there, " I run blues only to simulate dusk/dawn from 6-8pm" lol

 

[Robthorn]

Something like this.

 

[mcarroll]

Something like this.

Where'd you get that? Would be cool to try some other locations.

 

[mcarroll]

Found the following chart showing a tropical location (12 hours daylight) at this page.

Position "C" on the equator would be about 1000 W/m2 or 2000 PAR or 100,000 lux.

 

[Robthorn]

I don't know where that is and doesn't really matter to me. All I am trying to do is find a percentage of sunlight intensity for a given hour during the day. I then calculate intensity at every hour (my white's are at 40% and blues 100%) from my max intensity on all 3 channels.
The chart I posted I would think would be somewhat standard showing the shape of the suns rise and set. I am not worried so much about how much sunlight that actually is because I can't produce that much light over my aquarium anyway.
The chart you posted shows a linear pattern and from what I have seen and have been told by someone I respect a great deal in the industry the sunrise and set is not linear at all but at least somewhat in line with the chart I posted. I am sure my chart is not perfect either but it has a certain cool factor to me in my own head. I at least think I am trying to replicate the sun as best I can. In my own head. ;)

 

[mcarroll]

Doesn't matter too much, but should be interesting. ;)

Also, didn't mean to imply there was anything fundamentally wrong with the chart you found.

As you say, it shows the concept of "peak sun hours"...which everyone using a simple on/off fixture should be paying attention to! But I bet nobody's heard of "peak sun hours"....I was familiar with the concept, but hadn't heard a term for it before looking up more info thanks to that chart. ;)

Another version that makes it even more clear why that's a great depiction:

The minor detail of the one you posted was that it showed a northern-latitude day that ran until 9pm instead of someplace tropical.

Days are much shorter in the tropics....or rather they don't have the seasonally lo-o-o-o-ng days typical of other latitudes. (I found out that everywhere on the planet gets 12 hours of sun per day when you average out the year. Intensity is what actually varies less by latitude.)

As I said (or implied) in my original reply, I was mostly interested in being able to get a chart of other locales - like a calulator. A tropical locale was only one of them I was interested in seeing. ;)

And I finally found a calculator (a few of em!)- check it out:
http://www.pveducation.org/pvcdrom/properties-of-sunlight/calculation-of-solar-insolation

Now some samples.

A typical North American latitude vs the Tropics:


July 4th - USA vs Tropics:


Christmas Day - USA vs Tropics:

 

[Robthorn]

Nice find. I guess I have some adjustments to make. :-)
I want tropics for sure and I already run 12-13 hours. I just need to fix the ramp.
Thanks.