Photoperiods

[FishWife]

Since we work all day, we want to watch the tank at night. BUT, I'm wondering if our photoperiod is too long. We have an 80 Bow under six T-5's, thus:

 

Right now, we run 14 hours of blue, actinic lights and 13 hours of the full array. This is 'cause I want to check the tank by 8 AM and watch it until 10 PM, but it just occurred to me: too much?

 

Things I wonder:

1. We're starting to get some reddish algae that I'm not thinking is good on the sand. That could be from overfeeding (I'm trying to adjust downward, honest!) but we have good tank turnover (12-15X/hr) and pretty good flow from lower and upper manifolds plus nassarius sand and shrimps. SO....

 

2. Books I read are varied: 10-14 hours full array (using halides) so... from your experience, is this photoperiod our problem? AND/OR is this just plain too long for anemone/corals?

Edited November 12, 2007 by FishWife

[jason the filter freak]

the red is cyano I bet, and I only burned that fixture for 8 hours a day actinic and 6 full and was happy, I bet you'd be find though

[Rascal]

Another option if you want to check out the tank in the morning is to have a bunch of moonlights come at at 0700 but the real lights don't come on until later.

 

I run my VHO for 14 hours, T5 for 12, but MH right now only for 6 total (center for 3, 2 outside MH for 3, with a little bit of overlap.

 

If it's too much light, your corals will let you know.

[bigJPDC]

yes, the red is cyano and cutting your lights back will quickly help reduce it.

I run actinic for 11 hours and full lighting for five - FWIW.

 

jp

[Origami]

Hi Marcia, nice meeting you the other day (at the WAMAS fall meeting, that is). I was the other newbie that sat down with you for a moment....

 

 

 

I run my actinics for 12 hours, bracketed around 8 hours of running my HQI MH in full array. Moonlights are on for the 12 hours in opposition to the actinics. No issues with cyano in the display though I do have some starting to show up in the sump where I run low wattage 5000K CF lighting 24/7.

[zotzer]

I run my actinics from 12:00 to 10:00, and the daylights from 2:00 to 9:00. Having some cyano myself. The crazy thing is that it's all in the front of the tank where the flow is, and there is zippy in the back of the rockwork. Weird.

 

For now, I siphon it off with a turkey baster every other day until it runs its course. I may add a Koralia 2 or 3 to one side of the tank, and run the two K1s from the other side to see if I can add some flow.

 

Tracy

[rioreef]

I have 6 T5s, four on an IC ballast overdriven (A) and the other two on a triad (B). It goes like this with key times indicated:

 

B on at these times: 9am - 11:30am, 1pm - 5pm, 7pm - 9:40pm

A on at these times: 11:30am - 5pm

 

Number of bulbs on is sequenced like this: 2 4 6 4 2

 

A nice rise and decline throughout the day

[jnguyen4007]

I believe it was one of the articles in one of the reefkeeping magazine that I read where it said that for the MH light to be on for 8 hours with the arctinic light on for two hours before and stays on for 2 hours after, making the arctinic lights on for total of 12 hours. Anyway, that is how I set up mine with 12 hours of moonlight on. I had cyano problem up until couple of months ago. I did a massive water change, scrubbed down the sump, then use filter socks to capture those from the main tank. My cyano problem had since went away.

 

James

[lanman]

I want to play in my oceans in the evening. I run actinics starting at 3:00, and daylights on at 4:00 (which is when I usually get home from work). I shut the daylights off at 11:00 and the actinics at 11:30. So I get 7 hours of full light, 8.5 hours total. I've considered increasing it slightly.

 

bob

[Almon]

I use actinic for 15 hours from 6:30am to 9:30pm and MH for 13 hours from 7:30am to 8:30pm.

 

I have red cyano which is probably a result of the extended photo period. If I reduced the light, I am sure that the algae would also be reduced. However, I like to enjoy my reef before and after work, and sometimes during, on a good day.

[Leishman]

Actinic 11-11

MH 4:30-10:30

[FishWife]

Thanks, all! THAT was very helpful.

 

LOVE this club!

 

 

So... if I wanted to shorten the photoperiod to come on at, say, noon... could I feed in the evenings? (I don't know why, but I feel like morning's the time to eat... not a breakfast person myself... hmmm.)

Edited November 13, 2007 by FishWife

[Origami]

Yes, you could feed a couple of times in the evenings, several hours apart. Watch out for overfeeding, though. I'm still wrestling with that. Gotta watch those phosphates!

 

 

 

Like others here, I start my lighting later (noon) with the MH coming on at 2 PM. For me, this is a compromise schedule supporting weekday (when I get home later in the day) and weekend (when I'm really wanting to watch the tank earlier in the day) viewing.

[bigJPDC]

fish are opportunistic feeders - they really don't care about the time of day or lighting conditions and are probably amazed that food floats their way every day - it would never be like that in the wild.

[treesprite]

I have always thought it should be 2 hrs actinic in front of all-on and 2 hours after all-on. I've been setting total time as 10 hours.... is 12 really necessary as far as corals go?

[lanman]

I have always thought it should be 2 hrs actinic in front of all-on and 2 hours after all-on. I've been setting total time as 10 hours.... is 12 really necessary as far as corals go?

 

Nobody grows corals like Mr. Leishman...

 

Actinic 11-11

MH 4:30-10:30

 

 

--------------------

 

-Rik

 

I mean - I saw his red table grow a half inch during a 1-hour tank visit! Honest!!

 

bob