Lighting tank from the side

[exnisstech]

I'm bored and have extra gen 4 xr15s sitting around so I decided to try lighting some coral from the side. This miyagi tort is growing great but looks pitiful underneath. The acro above and to the left is starting to look poor down low as well so I decided to add a light to the side and see how it goes. It makes sense to me that it should help since I always read about shadowing being a concern. I'll follow up later with results good or bad. Top is lit with two photon 32s

FTS

 

[MnFish1]

I might suggest that coral receives light from various angles throughout the day - due to the angle of the sun - however I would not use this type of lighting for a big part of the day 1. People grow corals just fine without doing so - and 2. If you have fish the lighting may not be positive. Nice tank BTW

 

[exnisstech]

I might suggest that coral receives light from various angles throughout the day - due to the angle of the sun - however I would not use this type of lighting for a big part of the day 1. People grow corals just fine without doing so - and 2. If you have fish the lighting may not be positive. Nice tank BTW

In our tanks they don't get the sun changing position so maybe this will help. If nothing else it kept me busy for a while lol. I'm running it at lower intensity than the main light and only 4 hrs a day.
I hadn't thought about the fish. I only have 3 but I will monitor thier behavior for signs of stress. Thanks

 

[MnFish1]

In our tanks they don't get the sun changing position so maybe this will help. If nothing else it kept me busy for a while lol. I'm running it at lower intensity than the main light and only 4 hrs a day.
I hadn't thought about the fish. I only have 3 but I will monitor thier behavior for signs of stress. Thanks

yes - you can do it - however, I would only do it for a small part of the day one one side and then perhaps the other - as compared to constantly on
Sorry I wasn't clear

 

[FUNGI]

Interesting.....maybe you hit on the next trend....maybe even a light like this: sorry also bored at work.....

 

[exnisstech]

Interesting.....maybe you hit on the next trend....maybe even a light like this: sorry also bored at work.....

That actually looks very interesting. It could start on one side and end on the other simulating the suns movement / earth rotation :thinking-face:

 

[spsick]

A couple hours a day at low intensity will be awesome for those acros, and the algae on that pane of glass!

 

[twentyleagues]

A couple hours a day at low intensity will be awesome for those acros, and the algae on that pane of glass!

Thats what I thought immediately also the algae part anyway.

 

[Waters]

Don't the radions have a setting where it will increase/decrease from left to right (one fixture to the next)....or am I thinking of another LED. If so, that would be kind of cool to start it out on the side (as the sun rises) and have it move above as it approaches mid day.

 

[exnisstech]

A couple hours a day at low intensity will be awesome for those acros, and the algae on that pane of glass!

Thats what I thought immediately also the algae part anyway.

Ya but I'm used to scraping. All of my tanks should be scraped daily as is. I wait 3-4 days and it looks like a new tank after cleaning. The green in this shot is after scraping the glass in one tank

 

[ReeferCub]

I'm bored and have extra gen 4 xr15s sitting around so I decided to try lighting some coral from the side. This miyagi tort is growing great but looks pitiful underneath. The acro above and to the left is starting to look poor down low as well so I decided to add a light to the side and see how it goes. It makes sense to me that it should help since I always read about shadowing being a concern. I'll follow up later with results good or bad. Top is lit with two photon 32s

FTS

Not sure if you are still active here (your profile is hidden), do you have an update to share on what benefits or opposite you saw from the side lighting experiment? I have a place on my tank that is kind of shaded and was thinking of lighting that area from the side. Would be interesting to know what was your long term results.

 

[exnisstech]

Not sure if you are still active here (your profile is hidden), do you have an update to share on what benefits or opposite you saw from the side lighting experiment? I have a place on my tank that is kind of shaded and was thinking of lighting that area from the side. Would be interesting to know what was your long term results.

Apologies for not following up. I didn't run it long enough to determine if it would be beneficial. The tank is next to our dining room table and my Gal was not too fond of the light. I have 5 tanks in a small ranch house and she doesn't complain about those so I wasn't going to argue about it with her over it.

 

[ReeferCub]

Thanks for clarifying. I understand its not pleasing to look at. My tank is in a small room where no one goes in and hence no one is bothered what I do.

 

[SoWhatNow]

Thanks for clarifying. I understand its not pleasing to look at. My tank is in a small room where no one goes in and hence no one is bothered what I do.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...trategy-for-coral-health-and-realism.1120424/
Looks awesome. I'm just about to post a script that converts .aip profiles to the Rhythmic Reef, producing east to west profiles along the length of your lights. This thing is epic.

 

[X-37B]

This method was done in the 90's with growlight movers. It was never proven to be a benefit.
I always did halide #1 on before #2 then #1 was off before #2 simulating sun up/down.
Now we run leds for up/down with halides on at a peak of 5-6 hrs.
Halides only the 8hrs.
I ran 4 xr15's over my 80 growout and tried this for a few months but never saw an improvement. #1 on then #2, 3, then #4. Then 4,3,2,1 for off.

 

[SoWhatNow]

wrong. its used now, proven over years and years (decades) i was there when it was developed, hence RR.

 

[X-37B]

wrong. its used now, proven over years and years (decades) i was there when it was developed, hence RR.

What's wrong?
Who uses it now?
Who has used it for decades?
What is the benefit?
It was not a developed idea it was an offshoot of grow light methods.
Never proved itself in a grow environment either.
No one uses growlight movers anymore for commercial grows.
Been there done that.

 

[Reefering1]

I would argue that its not similar to the sun. Itd still light pointing down into the coral. The sun follows a curve, lighting the east side, top, then west side of coral.

 

[SoWhatNow]

hps growers still use movers. LEDs shifted the paradigm but leads to lesser products, whether in the weed space or food space. You know i could post links to 1000s of users of movers, but you know mods wouldnt appreciate it. If you want actual studies we got those too, same science as RR - we can increase PAR and minimise burn at the same time (remember light burn eh?)

 

[X-37B]

hps growers still use movers. LEDs shifted the paradigm but leads to lesser products, whether in the weed space or food space. You know i could post links to 1000s of users of movers, but you know mods wouldnt appreciate it. If you want actual studies we got those too, same science as RR - we can increase PAR and minimise burn at the same time (remember light burn eh?)

Interesting as all the commercial growers I delivered to ran fixed MH/HPS fixtures.
I would love to see pics of the movers in a commercial environment if you have any.

Several close commercial grow friends went to leds and now are back to MH/HPS combo's for commercial production.
Same reason you mentioned, more yield.
Anyway you can DM me so this thread does not get side tracked.

For a small 4'-8' reef tank I don't think a mover has much of an effect.

Again it would be interesting to see how it's done on a commercial sized area.