Lighting info

[Jivatma]

One of the biggest differences I've seen coming from freshwater background is lighting info. SW lighting info seems to be much more robust, yet a lot of the general info seems to be missing.

How do you 'start' a lighting cycle? I understand it will be a bell-like curve, ramping up to mid day and then back down. What do the different spectrums contribute to? How do I decide how to ramp each one?

About the most I've been able to find is red co tribute to algae growth, blues tend to be coral growth and the 'poo' effect. And whites also co tribute to algae, though mostly in nuisance form. Is this the correct info so far?

So for me real question though, how do I know what channel to ramp at what time? Also, do you let tank go completely dark during night or just low lighting?

For what it matters, I'm running two A9X on a standard 75g

 

[T-J]

... coral growth and the 'poo' effect.

20+ years in the hobby and I've never heard of the "poo" effect.

As far as your questions, the blue spectrums are what you'll want to focus on for corals. Different lights have different mixtures of these diodes. Yes, reds and greens can contribute to the growth of nuisance algae. Most LED lighting manufacturers will include pre-made profiles for the lights. Such as my Radions. I set them to the AB+ lighting schedule and I'm done!

The majority of people will have all the selected spectrums ramp up/down together. There are some that will have whites go up/down through the day. They like to simulate clouds, etc.

For nighttime, again the Radions handle this for me. They follow the actual moon cycle, and adjust my moon lighting appropriately. But yes, at some point every night, the tank goes completely dark.

 

[MaxTremors]

It really depends on the type of light, the actual model or brand of light, what you want to keep, and what color spectrum you find more appealing (some people like it more blue, some on the whiter side). But to answer your question about night time, I always recommend at least 10 hours of no light whatsoever, and preferably 12, but if you want to run ‘moon lights’ for a couple hours out of that, it’s not an issue (just don’t want to run them for multiple hours or all night).

 

[Jivatma]

20+ years in the hobby and I've never heard of the "poo" effect.

HA! This was my fingers not working. I meant the 'pop' effect that people have taken a liking to

 

[Jivatma]

What kind of ramp time does everyone use? How long should my lights remain at 'max' intensity. Somewhere in the vicinity of 12hr ramp up and down time with 10-12hrs of night, correct?

From what I can gather, Kessil lights are kind of dummy proof in the sense that I pick a 'color' I like, and use that while ramping. Is this correct?

 

[MaxTremors]

What kind of ramp time does everyone use? How long should my lights remain at 'max' intensity. Somewhere in the vicinity of 12hr ramp up and down time with 10-12hrs of night, correct?

From what I can gather, Kessil lights are kind of dummy proof in the sense that I pick a 'color' I like, and use that while ramping. Is this correct?

I run mine for a total photoperiod of 12 hours and total darkness for 12 hours. I ramp up to full intensity for three hours and then down from full intensity for three hours, so the lights are their highest intensity for six hours in the middle of the 12. The max intensity I’m running right now is blues at 80% and whites at 30%. I lowered the blues and upped the whites (from 90/20) recently to try and grow some macro algae a little faster (which I don’t know if it was a smart idea, I’m trying to get rid of some GHA, so I’m trying to lower nitrates, hence the macro algae, but I don’t know if upping the whites is counterintuitive, I guess I’ll see in a couple weeks).