Cali Kid Corals

How much "night time" does coral need?

I have never thought about how much night time they need as much as how much extra benifit they get from more light. Since the general conceus has been they only really need 6-8 hours and anything more isn't giving them more I never thought it would be wise for a home system to run longer (save money) but for a store I could see a benifit, and I am assuming you ment 6AM to 10PM as what you wrote is only 4 hours
 
Roc said:
I have never thought about how much night time they need as much as how much extra benifit they get from more light. Since the general conceus has been they only really need 6-8 hours and anything more isn't giving them more I never thought it would be wise for a home system to run longer (save money) but for a store I could see a benifit, and I am assuming you ment 6AM to 10PM as what you wrote is only 4 hours
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I think he did meen 6pm-10pm his tanks are outside in a shed, and get a lot of ambiant light.

Erin me personaly my T5's turn on at 9am and off and 9pm and metal my MH are on from 2pm-8pm. I would think that you would be ok with the MH on from 6-10.
 
I think they'll reach photo saturation with the given sun light and more would be/will be too much and will stress the corals. I suggest reading up on the photo saturation of corals and how it equates to water flow. Check our Advanced Aquarist, there's some great articles there :D
 
If Jake Adams wasn't so busy getting ready to fly to InterZoo I'd have him come over here and write about it as this is the second time in two days this has come up :)
 
1 lux is what is average of a full moon over the tropics at night. I would gather not much more then that?
 
It really depends on the phase of the moon. A full moon above Bora Bora is very bright while in comparison, a new moon is pitch black. I used to live on Moorea and once my eyes adjusted to the darkness it was easy to navigate the terrain without a flashlight if there was a full moon. Have no idea what the lux value would be because I didn't have a light meter handy. Speaking of light cycles, I really don't see the point replicating dusk/dawn cycles in captive reef systems. When the sun drops below the horizon in the South Pacific it gets dark very quickly. The whole process takes approximately 15 minutes. Ditto for dawn, once those damn roosters start crowing it gets light fast.
 
Gomer said:
My lights go on at 6 and off at 1am. ..meaning dark from 1am till about 6am with the tank's location.
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Wow, Tony........long photo period. Do all your lights come on at once?

My instincts tell me that like the plant world, the darkness is very important for coral. For plants, a change in the photo period is what triggers the change from vegetative growth to the growth of flowers and fruit. Any disruption in the darkness cycle can completely throw off the production of flowers and fruit. My guess is that changing seasonal photo period "may" have a dramatic effect on coral as well. I also think that interrupting the complete darkness of night cycle such as leaving a light on in the tank room "may" change the coral's growth patterns as it does for plants. Since my Apex has the ability to create seasonal change, I may plug in that element to see what happens. I'm careful to always turn off all ambient lights in the tank room before the night cycle begins.
 
Remember night time is an important feeding time for invertebrates(or at least in my tank) and Gorgonians plus some other LPS. The invertebrates in my tank love it when the lights go off in the afternoon, I think it has to do with the balance of light and darkness.
 
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