To Light or not to light, That is the question

[billy joe ferguson]

So, I have different people telling me how I should be lighting my Fuge. Some tell me to keep my light on 24/7 other say on at night off durning the day.

Right or wrong? That is the question

 

[pluikens]

I'm a firm believer that there are innumerable ways to run a reef and I'm assuming you mean lighting macro algae in your refugium. That being said, I think the argument for running opposite your DT light schedule is to keep photosynthesis occurring within the reef more constant to decrease the extent of pH swings. When I first started, I ran my refugium light 24/7 because I had the nutrients to feed my chaeto, I wanted to increase my pH as much as I could, and I didn't have another timer handy to run it opposite my display lights. I still want my pH to be higher but I have changed my refugium light to opposite my display lights because I have noticed my chaeto melting a little. I'm implementing other methods to increase my pH like running a CO2 scrubber and pulling air from outside. My suggestion would be to run you refugium light as much as you can without it melting your macro algae as long as you 1) have nutrients you want to export and 2) aren't looking for more stable pH readings throughout the day. If you need to cut back your daily lighting hours, have your refugium light off while your display lights are on. This is probably how a lot of folks that run refugiums for nutrient export got to lighting their refugiums opposite their display lights.

 

[lbacha]

When you first start your tank 24/7 will help stabilize nutrient export. As you get a good amount of coral and corraline in your display you will find that running the fuge during the day is too efficient and in my case the PH shoots through the roof (I can get it to go into the high 8.4's with the fuge on and display lights). Finding a good middle point is key where nutrient export and ph stay stable.

I actually run a lower wattage light on a reverse cycle from my display tank and I have a secondary high wattage light that kicks on any time my PH drops below 8.2 this seems to work pretty good for me but ai do have to adjust sometimes as the fuge can quickly strip all nutrients from the water