How essential is ramping lights up and down.

[Willbiker]

Untill I have the budget to improve my lighting, i have black box leds which I'm happy with however I just have to manually ramp up and down each day which is a pain.

How many of you don't bother ramping your lights up and down and just have a simple on/off timer?

Does it really have an impact on livestock?

 

[Garf]

Metal halides never used to be ramped, either on or off. I never noticed a problem. Probably best if the tank is not totally dark before turning them on though, ambient daylight etc.

 

[Billdogg]

Until I got LED's, my lights were always on/off only. Never had an issue

 

[Willbiker]

Good to hear. I was thinking I might get a cheap aquarium light to provide ambient light with a cheap controller to ramp up and down and the just have the black boxes on a timer.

 

[Cell]

I think it's more for aesthetics than anything. In theory it's less shocking to livestock, but that's very subjective.

 

[madweazl]

Outside of possible spawning events, I don't believe it to make any difference.

 

[bsr2430]

I’m with everyone on this. No problem at all.
I ran Halides and T5 for years this way. Only difference now is my electric bill is less.

Back when I was in an apartment and bought a Halide for my aquarium, the bill went up $20 a month. Plus the evaporation was worse than ever.
Quickly sold it.

 

[92Miata]

Metal halides never used to be ramped, either on or off. I never noticed a problem. Probably best if the tank is not totally dark before turning them on though, ambient daylight etc.

I agree that corals don't care - and fish usually don't have a lot of issues with the lights coming on - but a significant percentage (if not the majority) of people running MHs were also running VHO actinics or PC Actinics that they started a couple hours before the MHs.

 

[SPR1968]

Im not saying either way that it makes any difference because I have no science to prove it either way

However, I often get the privilege to watch both my systems ‘come alive’ at sunrise, and go to sleep at sunset, and after all, we are trying to create a natural environment within the enclosed reef systems are we not ?

The creatures slowly start to wake, corals emerge and life picks up, and then in the evening it slowly goes to sleep and slows down. It you watch fish when the lights are turned off suddenly they head for safety

If your on a budget then you can only do the best you can with what you have.

 

[Willbiker]

I have a 6 foot tank so very expensive to properly light. But I agree with you, I don't want to shock anything. That's why I'm thinking that low powered leds ramping up and down should give enough light to simulate sunrise and sunset and then the black box leds can turn on and off when the cheaper lights are at 100%....its the best I can think of for now.

 

[Biglew11]

When I had just t5 over my tank i would turn the led moonlights on about one hour before the first two t5s (actinics) about two hours after the first t5s the second 2 would turn on. Turning the off followed the same schedule in reverse.

I now have good leds and t5s. Its nice too see the gradual wakeup and going to sleep patterns, but as stated above not nessicary. Do what you can with timers until you decide you can afford to upgrade, or even if you want to upgrade.

 

[vetteguy53081]

It’s not. An example is the many gorgeous tanks running under a t-5 with no ramping capability
I have multiple Orphek Atlantik and barely ramp them

 

[stanlalee]

Zero. It's done mostly for you so you can see your inhabitants before and after the main lighting ramps up. As for spawning pretty sure gravitational pull/tides and other factors are involved.

 

[Brett S]

I disagree that there are zero benefits. I have my lights configured to ramp up and down and like others said, I can definitely see my fish and invert’s behavior changing as the lights come on and go off. In the evening as the lights dim down I can see many of my fish going off to their sleeping places even before the lights go off completely. Many of the nocturnal inverts also start to come out as the light gets dim and before they completely turn off. I believe this is more natural and in my mind, the closer we can replicate nature the happier and healthier our tank’s inhabitants will be.

But that said, I do agree that it is not essential. While there were some fluorescent dimming options, the ability to ramp lights up and down like this really came into the mainstream with LEDs and before LED’s people operated successful tanks for decades with lights that snapped on and snapped off. However, if you have the ability to ramp lights up and down then I would definitely recommend it, and personally, I would even spend a bit of extra money for that feature.

 

[wmwesty]

Metal halides never used to be ramped, either on or off. I never noticed a problem. Probably best if the tank is not totally dark before turning them on though, ambient daylight etc.

We also could not keep Gonioporas alive! Things change as we learn more and sunrise and sunset are not like a switch.

 

[Garf]

We also could not keep Gonioporas alive! Things change as we learn more and sunrise and sunset are not like a switch.

That’s attributed to feeding though isn’t it?

 

[ss30]

When I ran T5's I did notice if the fish were out and the lights came on they would all dart into the rock.

 

[LenG]

Fish don't have eyelids. How would you feel if the lights popped on? If we're trying to simulate nature, ramping makes sense.

 

[homer1475]

Ramping is one of those "cool" factors we have in LED's.

I keep it KISS. T5's with simple off, and on. My fish and corals never noticed a difference to when I had LED's and used ramping.

It's a gimmick people buy into lock, stock, and barrel.

 

[BZOFIQ]

It's non essential per se, just more natural.

If you sit outside in the am (I always enjoy this when going on vacay to tropics) the sun doesn't just turn on.

Both the sun and its intensity raises. I try to replicate that in my tanks. Given that most equipment and controllers already have that built in with 0-10V control, why not?

On my current setup, a reef bright strip attached to my ATI T5 fixture does the trick. I cant wait to achieve the same effect with my PowerModule Hybrid over the new setup. Here, using build in LED clusters, I will add "sun" moving from one end of the tank to the other over the course of day.