I have raed in a few books that I only need to run my metal halides 4 to 6 hours and use my vho lights for the rest of the time. The articles I read stated that after 4 to 6 hours coral no longer benifits from metal halide lighting. I have goniopora, colt, star polyps, a kenya tree and finger leather. What should I believe?
Metal Halides and VHO lighting
- Thread starter tthomasturkey
- Start date
tthomasturkey,
WELCOME TO REEFS.ORG!
First off, let me point you to a couple surveys we have on our website regarding lighting duration and the like. This first one was administered from November 2000 - January 2001:
http://www.reefs.org/cgi-bin/survey/sur ... e=lighting
This next one was setup just about 2 months ago and is still on-going:
http://reefs.org/GBSurvey/surveyq.php?s ... dc28e15594
That should give you a good indication of how the majority of the reefkeeping aquarists are running their lights.
Myself, I run only a single 6500 K 250 watt Iwasaki over my 38 gal tank. The halide is running for approximately 9-10 hrs per day. I used to run VHO actinics for 12 hrs during that time to help offset the color a little bit, but I turned those off about a year ago and haven't had any problems at all. To get a feel for what I keep, head over to http://www.liquidreef.com/ for the specifics on my tank.
hth
Shane
WELCOME TO REEFS.ORG!
First off, let me point you to a couple surveys we have on our website regarding lighting duration and the like. This first one was administered from November 2000 - January 2001:
http://www.reefs.org/cgi-bin/survey/sur ... e=lighting
This next one was setup just about 2 months ago and is still on-going:
http://reefs.org/GBSurvey/surveyq.php?s ... dc28e15594
That should give you a good indication of how the majority of the reefkeeping aquarists are running their lights.
Myself, I run only a single 6500 K 250 watt Iwasaki over my 38 gal tank. The halide is running for approximately 9-10 hrs per day. I used to run VHO actinics for 12 hrs during that time to help offset the color a little bit, but I turned those off about a year ago and haven't had any problems at all. To get a feel for what I keep, head over to http://www.liquidreef.com/ for the specifics on my tank.
hth
Shane
Welcome to Reefs.org
Photosynthesis will occur as long as their is sufficient light (known as the "compensation point"). So as long as you keep the lights on, your corals will be deriving energy from the light. There's no basis for the statement that lights have no utility for corals after 4-6 hours.
My halides run on a 10 hour daily cycle, with actinics on 13-14 hours (depending on season). What I suggest is you mimic nature since that's how corals have adapted.
Keep in mind that metal halide lights are a tiny fraction of the energy the sun emits, so 4 hours of MH per day is really not much "fuel" for photosynthesis.
Photosynthesis will occur as long as their is sufficient light (known as the "compensation point"). So as long as you keep the lights on, your corals will be deriving energy from the light. There's no basis for the statement that lights have no utility for corals after 4-6 hours.
My halides run on a 10 hour daily cycle, with actinics on 13-14 hours (depending on season). What I suggest is you mimic nature since that's how corals have adapted.
Keep in mind that metal halide lights are a tiny fraction of the energy the sun emits, so 4 hours of MH per day is really not much "fuel" for photosynthesis.
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