can coral live/thrive on 12 hour schedule?

[slinky]

Can I turn the light on 4 hours every 12 hours so essentially they have shorter but more frequent day/nights?

I read about they stop growing/utilizing lights after a few hours of strong light, so anything longer than 3-4 hours won't be necessary.

just a thought, what do you all think?

 

[jef4y]

Never heard of that myself. Would be an interesting experiment for anyone with some extra hardware doing a side-by-side comparison for a few months...

 

[weaglereefer]

I thought some people who grew frags did 6-on/6-off schedules, essentially giving 2 "days" per day.

 

[slinky]

I am interested in the experiment as I started a frag tank in the basement (totally dark without lights on). however, I can't do a side by side comparison as my display system is under LED and frag tank is under MH.

I am going to try the 6 on 6 off scheme. (is 6 on too long?)

 

[gnashty]

I was thinking of making my lights turn off between say 2-4pm that way I could get some AM view time in - it currenty kicks on at noon


Currently it is:
12:00 pm - Actinics on
1:00 pm - Whites on
6:00 pm - Whites off
10:00 pm - Actinics off
10:00 pm - 3am moonlights

I have some brown algae on the glass almost everyday when I come home so I want to reduce the photoperiod

so it would look like this
12:00 pm - Actinics on
1:00 pm - Whites on
2:00pm - 4:00 pm - ALL LIGHTS OUT
6:00 pm - Whites off
10:00 pm - Actinics off
10:00 pm - 3am moonlights

 

[hackman72]

I belive the photo saturation period is 4-6 hrs depending on the coral and the "reset" is 2-3 hours depending on the coral. There was a formula I saw that had 6 on 2 off getting the equivelent of 3 days per day. The problem you'll find is that the most wear and tear on your lighting system ballasts is at startup. The corals can get 3 days each day but so will the ballasts and the lighting system as a whole. Sort of an expensive trade off...

...and lighting isn't the biggest growth factor. Suspended food is.

 

[markl]

au01st;562174 wrote: I thought some people who grew frags did 6-on/6-off schedules, essentially giving 2 "days" per day.

never heard that .mmmm

 

[jr78]

never heard of that but would be a good experiment

 

[markl]

bump

 

[slinky]

I am doing the 6/6 schedule for a week now, on from 3-9 am and pm, so far, no ill effects. and I don't have anything to compare the growth. I just assume the growth will be better.

 

[brianjfinn]

I'd be interested to hear from icthyoid on this one. I think he posted an article or something he read a while back, but I was looking for it and couldn't find it. Maybe I'm wrong and it wasn't him.

Bill, if you see this, do you have any insight?