LIGHTS ON?

[Marty1971]

Is this an okay light schedule or too much or less?

7am blue t5's on
8am 250 mh on
8pm 250 mh off
9pm blue T5's off

David

 

[1guydude]

thats 12hrs of MHs and a 14hr cycle! I dont run Mhs but i think the people that do only run em for 6-8 hrs! Id tune it down to a 10-12 hr cycle with the Mhs only running 6-8hrs! Depending on how long uve been running em that way...tune em down by a half an hr a day so not to shock ur fish or coral! If this is a new system with no inhabitants than u can go ahead and change it up! HTH and makes sense lol!
maybe someone who actually runs Mhs can back that up?!?!

 

[Krish]

I use to run my halides about 8-10 hours a day. I don't think it's a real biggie running them for a bit longer as in some places during summer months, the reefs are hit with more hours of light than other parts of the year so I guess whatever works for you.

 

[mfinn]

That's a pretty long mh cycle. I keep my mh's on for about 8 hours. 11am to 7pm.
I guess if the corals are doing ok and you are not having any heat issues, then it's fine.
Also another thing is the power bill needs to be taken into account.

 

[1guydude]

wat about nuissance algae?

 

[Marty1971]

Should of put more info, that the proposed schedule. They currenly fron from 10am till 8pm. Alagie hasn't been a real issue, yet. I just added my first fish this weekend. Per above recommendations, I think I move them to go on at 12pm till 8pm. I get my blues T-5 to go on from 10am till 9pm.

David, thanks for info and advice.

 

[Myteemouse]

I only run my MH's for 6 hours a day!

 

[DonW]

There is more to a photo period than meets the eye. To long you botch up the second part of photosynthesis (photo inhabition). To short and ya mess with the first part of photosynthesis. I cant remember all the details but would be nice if we could get Mojo to elaborate.

Don

 

[Myteemouse]

If I remember right 6-8 hours is what the past discussion/research thread came up with.

 

[1guydude]

agreed!

 

[DonW]

If I remember right 6-8 hours is what the past discussion/research thread came up with.

I think there is more to it than time. I can remember when people were blasting their tanks with huge lights and just running them for an hour or so. There was also discussion about flash blasting light for 1000,s of a second.

Don

 

[Krish]

I just double checked and mine was an 8 hour cycle of MH's.

 

[akunochi]

There is a reason a lot of professional prop shops that do a 4 hour on 8 hour off cycle for the reasons stated above. I ran my MH for 6 hours with T5 for 1 hour on either side prior to switching to LED.

 

[mojoreef]

I think there is more to it than time. I can remember when people were blasting their tanks with huge lights and just running them for an hour or so. There was also discussion about flash blasting light for 1000,s of a second.

Wow Don good memory!!! I am trying to remember off the top of my head, but here it goes. SO in the process of photosynthesis their is both reactions that occur in light and in dark. The processes of both of these chemically (as in turning light photons into simple sugars and such) are the same, but their are some very neat and important differences. So to look at it you have to look at the skeleton as a collection of tiny building blocks called lattices. In daylight photosynthesis the corals pounds out the lattices and they are very small and thin. then in the dark period it recovers those lattices with a much more thick and durable version. So if you put that to the question of lighting and lighting periods, it is best to make sure that you allow good time on both. Studies that were done took it to the point of cloud cover or cloud passings and so on, I would think a little deeper then the hobbist needs to go. This is where the 4 on and 8 off ratio came into play.

mojo

 

[critercrit]

i run mine for 6 hours a day

 

[dnjan]

I don't even run the MH's in summer (don't want the extra heat). Just VHO's.

So, I would back off on the MH's (as suggeested repeatedly above) for the sake of heat and evaporation.