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Metal Halide users, how long is your MH photoperiod?

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sfsuphysics

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Having seen a few topics pop up at the SPS forum over at RC about color and photoperiod, I'm curious what other locals do. Not so much to change my view on a topic, but I like to know what others do. :D

I've gone from a long photoperiod 9 hours a day, to a relatively short one 5.5hours, and have seen a significant improvement in coral colors. Granted there are a handful of other reasons this could have occurred, so I'm in no way saying the light was the sole reason of it, however I haven't seen any BAD things occur due to the reduced photoperiod, so while PG&E might not be happy about my choice, I am.

Also I was stuck before with single ended bulbs, over an 18" wide tank with lumenarc type reflectors, so there was no other space for other lighting, however moving to a 36" wide tank, not only did I ditch the reflectors, I went DE, and T5s.
 
For years I ran only 5 hours but then a timer crapped out and they all got stuck onto one timer for a long time and closer to 7 1/2 hours. Things paled out at that length so recently I've gone back to more timers and 6 hours. Things are getting a bit darker now :D
 
I lowered my MH photoperiod to 6 1/2 hrs and will probably go down to around 6. I used to have them on for 8hrs.

What kind of DE MH and T5 do you have Mike? I am considering changing to different bulbs and was wondering what combination of DE MH and T5 looks good.
 
Aldie, I use 14k Phoenix bulbs (250w) and a combo of ATi Blue plus and UVL Super Actinic T5s, I highly recommend the blue plus if you have a choice between one or the other, they put out impressive light numbers for a blue bulb.
 
In both my Frag Tank and Display Tank I have them running a 6 hour MH photoperiod. With the move to 400W's in my Display tank I believe I will be moving down to a 5 hour photoperiod. I also run a pretty lengthy T5 actinic period running 2 T5's... a D-D Giesmann Pure Actinic bulb and Actinic+ bulb over each tank for about 12 hours.
 
MH on for 6.5 - 7 hrs. Actinic is kinda long at 12 hrs. but allows for more tank viewing. Thinking about cutting MH down to 6 hrs to save on PG & E.
 
[quote author=badbread link=topic=6581.msg84789#msg84789 date=1235676611]
I follow the suns photo period, every 3 weeks or so I increase it 5-10 minutes, in the fall I decrease as it goes.
[/quote]

Do you account for clouds as well? haha.

I run mine for about 6 hours on my frag tank. Staggering them by half an hour. Actinics are on for about 8.5 hours.
 
Loving it so far, Gresh. That Iwasaki bulb is bright as hell though and seems to burn a crisper color with the Giesemann ballast than with the Aquamedic. I can't really tell the actinics are on; I've looked through the side of the fixture to make sure that they're on on more than one occasion. :p

I'll be trying out the UVL super actinics and the ATI blue plus as well to see if either of them produces a bluer look when stacked with the MH.
 
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