Photo-Period Question

[BowieReefer84]

Gadgets ran his MH for 5 hours. hard to argue with his success.

 

 

[jaddc]

Hmmmm -- that's really interesting.

[Ryan S]

Do you have before and after pics?

 

no, not really. i have pics of what they looked like on the frag racks before. they were just small 1" acro pieces on frag plugs. all were brown. no encrusting. now they are encrusted and green, yellow, red, purple, none are brown. i didn't change anything in the tank except the light period.

[trockafella]

Do you also think maybe it came from your tank finally balancing out and being left alone. Improved water quality couldve also played an important role. Im not doubting the light change helping, im sure it did, but what have your params looked like over that period compared to before. Any other changes youve done.? How bout the non-sps corals.

[ridetheducati]

I would be interested to know whether any changes occurred to SPS colonies. Frags are, well frags.

[Integral9]

That's very interesting study, and makes sense to me.

 

Corals grow in tropical regions and while many are near the equator, the angle of incidence of the sun on the water would reflect much of the light for most of the morning and evening hours. Thus reducing effective light penetration to about 8-10 hours or less Add into that corals growing in places which are relatively far from the equator (but still tropical), have varying amounts of light and darkness throughout the year. Thus the amount of useable light is reduced further in the winter months and increased in the summer months. So it makes sense to me that corals would have adapted to thrive in shorter photo periods and while somewhat longer photo periods aren't particularly detrimental, extreme photo periods are. I would hypothesize that it may be due to a build up toxins released by the algae performing the photosynthesis.

 

I'm going to adjust my lighting and see what happens.

[Ryan S]

I don't have large SPS colonies. I have 2 small colonies and they both are as improved as my SPS frags. A blue acro SPS colony I got from Quantum Reefs for $80 has grown a 1/4" in the last month. Color is great. My other is the ORA Red Planet which looks better than ever. The polyps are bright red and the skin is bright green.

 

LPS colors are also great. Everything in the tank looks better. My parameters have been stable for 2 months. The lighting has only been shorter for 3 weeks. Again, I will chime in and take some photos at the 8 week mark to be sure, but at this point, the changes are very obvious.

 

I would not hesitate recommending the shorter photo period to any of you. Especially those of you with SPS.

[Orion]

Going to bring up an old thread from August. Ryan - Are you still having success with the shorter photo period?

I am currently keeping my light on for 8 hours from 1pm - 9pm

[Ryan S]

Yes, still 6 hours. Everything is doing well.

Edited December 23, 2012 by Ryan S

[zygote2k]

where's the full tank shot?

[Minh B.]

I'm curious if anyone has tried the shorter photoperiod with a maxi clam in their mixed sps/lps tank? And if so, for how long to make everyone in the tank happy?

[Ryan S]

where's the full tank shot?

I will take one when i get back from vacation.