theory - actinics & halides - which first?

[Troylee]

PAR readings when clouds move in front of the sun routinely swing in very severe ways, so I personally don't buy that using lights in a dawn to dusk fashion really helps much.

this is prolly true, but with the xm10ks i run i need something to get the yellow out of there and the vho's can hang with them all day.....there is a night and day difference when i turn them off and on with the halides running.....plus my good friends run vho actinics and i have never seen corals pull the blue color as much as theres.....just something to think about..

 

[Kbra]

I run my Actinics first for about an hour then fire the first of two halide 30 min before the other and then the second which runs 30 min longer than the first. So in the end they both run the same about of on time but the tank has a dusk and dawn thing going on :D

 

[mr_X]

This is something that Ive given a lot of thought to. Although I just have halides on my tank, I always wanted the atinics to add a little color, because my tank runs 10k atinics. I believe that the dawn/dusk effect might be good for the corals and other animals, but does anyone here thing that the atinics do anthing other than that and looks? Everything Ive read says that corals (and most other underwater creatures) do not need light from the blue end of the spectrum. Input

it's true that you need the actinic light, but the halide lamps we use are full spectrum for the most part. the corals are getting this light from the halides as well.

 

[Ike]

I'm of the opinion that tring to simulate dusk, dawn, and moonlight does little to nothing for corals. I ran MH with supplementation for nearly 20 years, I also ran T5's with a dusk/dawn type timing. I've been running just pendants on my tanks for about 6 months now and can't think of a single reason, other than liking the look, to simulate dusk and dawn.