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Photo periods

Gomer

Gomer

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Back in the planted days...

A lot of people would run their tank for 10-12 hours/day at fairly high light levels (~3-4wpg PC which for planted tanks is a fair bit. think SPS equiv).
Then some people started playing around with shorter 6-8hr photo periods but at higher intensity (around 4-6wpg).
And some others played with a dual photo period say 4hours of 6wpg with 4hrs of 1-2wpg before and after (sunrise/sunset)

How does this pan out in the reef?

I am currently running a 4x39watt T5HO tek light over my 40g for 10hrs/day.
Highly tempted to go MH right now. I am thinking of the 175 SE lumenarc, but am remotely considering the SE 250 on a reduced photo period (say 6-7hrs).

Thoughts or any stories or articles on this? I've spoken with Jeremy on this a bit (and giving his iEAR a rest :p) and have been reading some on Advanced Aquarist and RC, but there is a lot of vagueness out there.
 
No stories however I do have a thought! :D

My thought is the reefs don't get the sun overhead for 8 hours, much less 6 hours, however the sun can shiny for quite some time, but the coral might also be shaded for quite some time if it's on a rock facing east or west.
My thought is a bright MH lighting, 4 hours maybe 5 tops, then some T5 lighting outside of that for a total of 10-12 hours a day. Now I've done this on my softie tank, instead of going with 4 T5s over the top, I've went with a couple 175w MHs on for 4 hours, and a couple T5s on for 11 hours (Blue bulbs), and my corals are larger than ever now! (however unsure if that's a good thing). This is an experiment I would like to reproduce over my stony tank, but those lumenarcs take up too much damn real-estate over the tank, and I can't fit any T5s in there, unless I put them under in which case I'd block some of the lumenarc.

So as far as reading, well "some guy said" (and take that with whatever salt you want :D), corals do have a photosaturation point, at which time they no longer need any more light and the light only heats up the water, now whether or not we can replicate that in our tanks with bulbs? I don't know, I'm guessing we could but I can't tell you what that magic wattage that will do it is.

That being said, I'd seriously consider a 250w, for less time, and if you can cram some PC bulbs or something over it? All the better. Plus it'll be easier to make your photoperiod later in the day for hot livermore weather :D
 
How wide is your 40? 18" if so yeah, the smallest lumenarc is 14.5" wide which doesn't leave much room for T5s. However I have been thinking of angling the T5 reflectors so that they'll actually shine in a useful fashion (i.e. not just right against the front & back panel)

Now if you had the option to go a DE bulb I might lean more towards a lesser reflector & t5s, however the reflectors for SE bulbs seem to be lacking a bit. unless you go lumenarc/bright.
 
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