Pistol Peet
Reefing , family ,God, country.
Longer less intense provides a greater window for photosynthesis throughout the day if you have less light more intense your photosynthesis. Is cut way back
Longer Less Intense Lighting versus Shorter More Intense Lighting: Which is better?
- QUESTION OF THE DAY
- Thread starter revhtree
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I want that cloud thingy!my lights have a "cloud" program. when I have it on, the tank will go random shade, from left to right, across the tank. haven't used it in a while though. novelty wore off.
Sounds like a cool, “must have” toy. LOL!
Too bad I only have a cheap black box. Might have to get creative!
kaceyo
Active Member
I've seen amazing tanks running both ways, and with high light with a long photo period, so it comes down to personal preference. They will acclimate to either. As long as you acclimate them slow enough and don't deprive them of enough light for photosynthesis.
Justin Aretz
Active Member
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This is too open to subjective and anecdotal info - different species and genus require a vast range of both PAR, PUR, DLI and a spectrum variation. This is the precursor to the actual question in my opinion. Also, there is more than likely at least a range where there is a right or a wrong answer
stephen wyard
Community Member
I run my lights for ten hours one hour ramp up and on hour to ramp down.Run all my blues at 100% but my whites stay about 10%.I found with my tank when I increase the white I burn the low light corals.I have had got color and growth with this set up.Like they say if it isn't broken don't try to fix it.
Ramp up and ramp down to mimic nature.
I use two sets of T'5s to crudely ramp up and down and halide for midday:
3.5 hr T5's (in 2 stages)
4 hr halide
3.5 hr T5's (in 2 stages)
If I could only get myself to like LED's, the ramp up and down phases would be much smoother, but not the most important thing in the overall scheme of things.
I use two sets of T'5s to crudely ramp up and down and halide for midday:
3.5 hr T5's (in 2 stages)
4 hr halide
3.5 hr T5's (in 2 stages)
If I could only get myself to like LED's, the ramp up and down phases would be much smoother, but not the most important thing in the overall scheme of things.
I think it's both - I have all day low intensity lighting with a relatively short peak of high intensity due to the programming of my Kessils
Wayne P.
Active Member
I run my AI Prime Reef HD with UV's, and Blues at about 80%. Ramp up at noon, ramp down at 9. 1 hour ramp up and down. Not seeing any bleaching, corals seem happy. I was actually looking for some maps so I could experiment.
Brett S
Valuable Member
I tried to mimic the sun’s intensity as much as possible with my lights. I have three G3 Radion XR30 Pro’s over my 220G tank that are controlled by my apex. I set up the lighting schedule to match the average solar radiation curve. It has been set up this way for nearly 5 years now and I’ve seen very good coral growth over that time.
One thing that I like about this is that it seems very natural for the fish. As the lights dim in the last 45 minutes or hour I can see that many of my fish start heading to their sleeping places even before the lights are totally shut off. And by the time the lights do shut off most of the fish that go into the rocks to sleep are already there.
One thing that I like about this is that it seems very natural for the fish. As the lights dim in the last 45 minutes or hour I can see that many of my fish start heading to their sleeping places even before the lights are totally shut off. And by the time the lights do shut off most of the fish that go into the rocks to sleep are already there.
sp1187
bird flu antidote
funny thing, it will do "lightening" too which is more or less a quick strobe. again random and very annoying.
H@rry
Troll
I voted "other" because I run a longer period at the same intensity. I figured if light was a good thing I would give them a little more of the good thing. I went from 8 hours to 12 hours. Maybe I could see a little improvement but it might just be me wanting it to look better. No problems and I'm 98% acros.
FunnierThanUThink
Community Member
I run an 8hr max intensity photo period with a 2hr ramp up and 1hr ramp down. I noticed I get better overall growth and appearance on my corals at a lower level. I have experimented a lot and found I can run a 4hr max intensity at a greater intensity level, but I noticed some corals will get aggravated sometimes. Anything more than 8hrs on low intensity seems to aggravate my corals also. I have an ai prime, low intensity 50-60% blue and white 8%, but I do get a lot of direct sunlight, all day, on the tank unfortunately. I believe even indirect sunlight will affect a tank for lighting at this point. I will be moving soon and placing the tank in a room with no sunlight. I will be interesting to see the affects, I am convinced the sunlight is adding too much par on one section of the tank.
Dburr1014
7500 Club Member
I have noticed the same with my fish. My leopard wrasse is in the sand bed before the lights are all blue.I tried to mimic the sun’s intensity as much as possible with my lights. I have three G3 Radion XR30 Pro’s over my 220G tank that are controlled by my apex. I set up the lighting schedule to match the average solar radiation curve. It has been set up this way for nearly 5 years now and I’ve seen very good coral growth over that time.
One thing that I like about this is that it seems very natural for the fish. As the lights dim in the last 45 minutes or hour I can see that many of my fish start heading to their sleeping places even before the lights are totally shut off. And by the time the lights do shut off most of the fish that go into the rocks to sleep are already there.
JimFuller
Active Member
If I remember correctly, @Dana Riddle did some studies on this. There was a correlation about PAR over time and PUR. I am not sure I remember what it was, but I am sure I read about on Reef2Reef.
I run my new Radio XR30 Blue G5 at 50% intensity for 8 Hours. This gives me a total light time of 12 Hours with 2 hour ramp up and 2 Hours ramp down. It appears to be working well on my tank.
I run my new Radio XR30 Blue G5 at 50% intensity for 8 Hours. This gives me a total light time of 12 Hours with 2 hour ramp up and 2 Hours ramp down. It appears to be working well on my tank.
Dana Riddle
2500 Club Member
There have been many examinations of zooxanthellae's responses to light intensity, including a few I did while in Hawaii. There are hundreds of 'types' (clades) of zooxanthellae. Some are 'sun' types whiles others are 'shade' types. A third type is highly adaptable. An analogy can be seen during a trip to a nursery - there are 'shade' plants, 'full sun' plants. It's a good idea to follow the nursery's recommendations but plants can adapt to a certain degree to light fields but will never thrive. Now, to compound things, we have to consider whether the type/clade can produce photoprotective xanthophylls and the shunting of violet/blue light away from the photosynthetic apparatus by reflective chromoproteins and fluorescent proteins. It seems that photosaturation occurs in many corals at PAR values of 300 to 400. There are exceptions of course. For example, Montipora capitata is at maximum photosynthesis at PAR of just over 100 and excessive light will bleach/kill it. On the other hand, Tridacna derasa's photosynthesis shows no sign of slowing down at industrial strength sunlight. So, it's all a compromise when it comes to lighting. Personally, the lighting in my tank is 200-250 at the sandbed at maximum intensity. The DLI is about 7. So, bottom line less intense for a time to obtain a Daily Light Integral of about 7.
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