Bright lights for 1 hour

[BradB]

I am in the process of upgrading my tank (probably buying a 270, have a 120 right now), and am likely to have a lot of extra lights, and equipment left over to sell. The current owner of the tank I am thinking of buying is running 2 400 watt halides.

I am tempted to keep 4x400 watt halides over the tank (I am unlikely to get much money selling them), and am tempted to:
8am: 1 light on
11am: 2 lights on
1pm: 3 lights on
1:30 pm: 4 lights on
2:30 pm: 3 lights on
3pm: 2 lights on
5pm: 1 light on
8pm: all lights go off


This is more like a real reef, where you have very intense light for the mid day, and less the rest of the time. Do you think it would help, hurt or make no difference versus having 2 lights on for 10 hours? I plan to keep a mix of mainly SPS and gorgonians.

 

[ziggy]

Thats a good question. Ive been thinking about 3 250's on a 110g and having the center bulb #3 turn on mid-day for an hour,using a 6500k. I to have "extra stuff" from a divorce sale I stumbled onto.

The only thing I see in your timing list is with the placement of the bulbs to get even coverage. Are you going left to right to mimic the sun travel? Are these all in a row or off-set front to back?

 

[BradB]

Not sure about bulb placement, just getting some ideas together right now. I always have moved my lighting across the tank from east to west, so I probably will continue doing that.