Lights left on24/7

[moortim]

So far we have a lot of opinions on this topic but little fact. Does anyone know of an article or study from somewhere that would shed a little more light (pun intended) on the subject?

Tim

 

[chrisdaphish]

yah.. any rEAL evidence?cuase if not.. mabye EVERyone shoud leave their lights on 24/7 and let everythign grow faster!

 

[moortim]

Yeah I would have the best nusiance algae farm in the country!

 

[DonW]

So far we have a lot of opinions on this topic but little fact. Does anyone know of an article or study from somewhere that would shed a little more light (pun intended) on the subject?

Tim

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-12/eb/index.php

See if this helps
Don

 

[RegalFlush17]

I am going to ask a biology professor at my school tomorrow, so I will come back with some answers.

 

[mojoreef]

Corals use both light and dark reactions to grow. During light reaction you get photosynthisis, during dark reaction you get more nutrient uptake and tissue build along with the tissue wasting process. So you will screw up your tissue building process. Also calcification occurs during the dark hours to where skeliton is produced high and fast and then during the day it is filled in. So you would be screwing up that to. Also you would be taking away the main food source for capture as this food source will not come out during the day for fear of preditation, this also might happen to the coral itself. Also during the day while photosysnthisis is taking place the coral is always in a battle with oxygen production with in itself. To do this is regulates Photosysthisis but shutting the process off and on, this process takes up a good amount of its energy budjet, if you keep your lights on its going to make the coral work that much harder and thus take up double the amount of an already slime energy budget. This would result in the coral being more susceptable to other problems


Mike

 

[moortim]

Now we're talkin! I guess it is just me being in an engineering environment that says we need cold hard facts. Mike's word is good enough for me. I liked the article too, thanks Don.
What do you think about this info, chrisdaphish?

Tim

 

[Aquatic Guru]

Yea....if you leave your lights all the time.....you lights would end up burning out sooner. There's more money wasted right there in the long run. Doesn't corals spawn at night? Or so they say, they only spawn during the spring time? Someone told me that. Not sure if I believed him? Is the moonlight for spawning or just an added attraction?

 

[mojoreef]

If one is looking for grow you have to look at it from the growth of tissue. The skeliton of the coral is nothing but a refuse dump where the coral can get rid of calcium that is inhibiting its cellular division (growth). In relationship to growth of tissue a coral need nutrients, aminos and so on period. In the case of SPS types tey get those nutrients from photo, making your lights stay on 24/7 disrupts a process the coral has evolved into over the coarse of millions of years. extra lighting does not make extra growth, this same thing applies for higher levels of calcium.
When a coral gets light on it, it begins a photo cycle, it will continue the cycles until the corals itself turn off the cycle. It will do this for a couple of reasons. One is that the process is creating to much oxygen and the coral might develop super radicle oxygen moles like hydroxide (not friendly to the internals of a coral) the second is heat. With the light energy that is captured by the zoox it goes to the electron transport system in order to be processed, the biproduct of this is also the creation of heat which is released by the coral when the system becomes saturated. This is kind of a regulation system the coral has.
So increasing the lighting period is mostly not going to be used by the coral anyway and will probibly cause it to spend more energy on heat dispersion and controling oxygen saturation. Either way its a step backwards


Mike

 

[chrisdaphish]

hmm sounds smart so coral really only grow at night?! then maybe i shoudl just leave my lights off all the timejk of course...mojo.. is what you said applicable to all corals? or just mainly sps or only lps or everything? thanks for the help! i still have to read that article don linked for us. but i have to go ill be checking back later tho

 

[joshinjosh]

doesn't the dark reaction calvin benson cycle still occur during the day?

 

[RegalFlush17]

the dark reaction or calvin cycle does occur during the daytime. It is only called the dark reaction because the process is not dependent on light to occur. During this process ATP is produced to feed the coral (or technically the zooanthellae) from the products of the light reaction of photosynthesis. The majority of energy (ATP) is produced during the calvin cycle. However, I am still uncertain of the scientific reason for night time. However, mojo said that the prey for the coral only come out during the night which explains why coral extend their sweeper tentacles at night. As for the scientific reason for the importance of night time, I am still researching.

 

[liveforphysics]

I'm not exactly sure where I read it (I think it was something from Inland aquatics) where they measured how changing lighting periods effected the growth of corals. SPS grew much slower and was less healthy. It also changed the shape of the growth. The softies became coated with this white stuff and stayed in a half open half closed state that exhibited very poor growth.

I think the article said the best growth occured from a lighting schedual similar to the natural lighting period recieved near the tropic of cancer to tropic of capicorn latitudes.

Imagine that!

 

[liveforphysics]

The same article also talked about how simulating proper seasonal changes and lunar cycles caused much more natural coral spawning to occur, and coral growth overall improved.

When I finally get settled into a house I plan to keep, I cant wait for all my lighting to be provided by solar tubes. No electricity, minimal enviromental impact, proper photo-periods for solar and lunar light, proper wavelegnths of light, and all the intensity your tank can handle.

For seattle sunshine though, it will require perhaps 4 times the surface area of the tank to be collected to ensure that on our most cloudy days the tank still recieves tropical level lighting. Then on sunny days, a PAR senseing device will control a means to attenuate the intensity(simpe passive means) to regulate the tank to always be recieving aproximately the same intensity each day, just like a real tropical reef.

But, alas, thats a long ways off for me... damn college budget holds me back...

 

[mojoreef]

think of what is more previlent in our tanks during lighted periods??

light reactions - capture and conversion of light (photon) energy into chemical energy by membrane/protein-associated molecules, leading to formation of ATP and NADPH

dark reactions - utilize energy stored as ATP and reducing power stored as NADPH to convert carbon dioxide into organic compounds at the oxidation level of carbohydrate


mike

 

[chrisdaphish]

hmm okay.. maybe i will change my lighting back to the normal photoperiods... but i have to admit that when i left my lights on for 3 days straight i DID see some more growth.. but maybe i had jsut brainwashed myself to think that it would grow faster?! haha idunno . thanks for the help guys