Light Duration

Afsal

Afsal

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this has been baffling me !!! ok here goes , in a reef tank , that has no algae issues , runs its lights for 6 hours , growth of corals etc is good ... wud the growth of the corals increase if the photoperiod increases and there were no algae issues !!!
 
Photoperiod increased? I would say no.
A coral only takes in x amount of light for energy and food.
 
from what i read somewhere corals usually take a maximum of 4 hours of light
 
I run my halides for 9.5 hrs and antinics for 12.
 
Think of it as a stereo with lighting as the volume button and nutrients [mainly phosphates and nitrates] as the power button. Now you can turn the volume botton as high as you like, if the power button is in off position and no sound[algae]. Now you hit the power button and turn up the volume and viola you have sound[algae] and the harder you drive the volume button the louder the sound gets.
 
Alan said:
Think of it as a stereo with lighting as the volume button and nutrients [mainly phosphates and nitrates] as the power button. Now you can turn the volume botton as high as you like, if the power button is in off position and no sound[algae]. Now you hit the power button and turn up the volume and viola you have sound[algae] and the harder you drive the volume button the louder the sound gets.
Click to expand...

nicely put Alan!!
 
Alan said:
Think of it as a stereo with lighting as the volume button and nutrients [mainly phosphates and nitrates] as the power button. Now you can turn the volume botton as high as you like, if the power button is in off position and no sound[algae]. Now you hit the power button and turn up the volume and viola you have sound[algae] and the harder you drive the volume button the louder the sound gets.
Click to expand...


Wow Alan. That is quite the analogy!
 
Well I need to find out how to turn off the power button because the sound is driving me crazy....
 
Guys,

This raises an interesting point (for me) I'm running purely T5's 3xblue and 3xwhite, atm my cycle is as follows:

10:00-22:00 - 2xblue (12hours)
10:30-21:30 - 1xblue+1xwhite (11hours)
11:00-21:00 - 2xwhite (10hours)

Everything seems fine... minus maybe my bleached mushrooms.

Is this about right? over the top? etc... Tank size is 1.5mx0,75mx0.5m

Thanks,
Paul
 
Thalion said:
I understand in the sea as the sun will be to low most of the time, but has it been tested in a tank, as the light is always directly over head.
Click to expand...
I don't think its been tested as such, our overhead lighting is no where near the intensity of the sun. Considering the corals in shallow waters could even be exposed to direct sunlight at low tides.
 
That's because the light doesn't cause algae, nutrients do. You can run as high a wattage lighting as you like for as long as you like, if there is no fuel for algae then there wont be algae.
 
Hi Rod - as Alan also said before - I think (especially in my case) it's more a case of the phosphates causing the hair-algae to grow out of control, than the lighting period. Reducing the lighting period is most likely only a way to assist in controlling already existing hair-algae.....

I have noticed after reducing the feeding of my tank, a huge reduction in hair algae, and also quite a lot of dying off of hair algae.... (I also reduced my lighting period a bit as well)...

My T5's switch on at 6:00am until 10:00pm..... My Metal Halides are on: during the week, from 12:00pm to 9:00pm, and weekends, from 10:00am to 9:00pm (at this stage.... I might reduce this still a bit even - BUT I have corals and anemone's to care for still as well)....

BTW: Interesting thing though - my nitrate levels have ALWAYS stayed between 0 and 2 on my Salifert test kit..... even with the hair-algae die-off occurring...

BUT, I also dosed some more bacteria in my tank (and am trying out the vodka method - which could also possibly be working - no proof as yet)...
 
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