Photoperiod....just a survey

[mkengr45]

I am curious how long everyone leaves their tank in the " bright light" mode. On my 92 corner tank I am running 120 of LED and a 250w SE 20k metal halide (Radium 20k). I have my blue LEDs come on for about an hour, then my white LEDs for about 2 hours, then I only have my halide on for about 4 hours, then I ramp down light. I adopted this minimal light scheme after seeing an old timers reef looking spectacular following this cycle. Just curious what other folks are doing. I have been doing this long enough that I have read practically all the articles out there about photoperiod, but sometimes you just have to ask the folks around you what they are doing. Does my light cycle seem too conservative? About right?......FYI my overall light cycle is from 10am to ~8pm.

Randy

[avilamillar]

Hey here's a link of a similar thread a couple weeks ago, you might find some useful information there.

http://www.maast.org/showthread.php?70379-Light-cycle

[mkengr45]

Thanks for the link. I am mostly interested in tanks that have adhered to a certain light cycle for ove one year. I have always had a hard time doing this since I like to tinker with my stuff, but the "old timers" tank I have in mind had been under a weak light cycle for years ad looked absolutely outstanding. I will have to go through my old emails ( from 2002-2003) to get the guys name and then maybe I can put some pics up. I was totally floored when he told me his light cycle. At the time I was running a 250 gallon cube and pumping a butt load of light in that thing, but after seeing his system I changed. Around 4 months after this I saw the best color and growth out of that tank that I had ever seen. At this time NOBODY around here was running LED. Now fast forward to now....technology it the home reef has changed a bunch (controllers, led, bunch of other stuff, etc). I am thinking of scraping the LEDs and going back to what has worked it he past.

[Sherita]

I'll post my schedule up for the tanks at the bottom of this post. No leds on any of my tanks, never will be. Here we go:

72g + sump custom mixed reef, 2 x 175w mh, 2 x 110w vho super actinics. vho runs from 9am to 10pm, halides on at 11am off at 6pm

large frag system - three tanks + sump, about 150g total volume. Three light systems on this one. System one (zoa tank, shallow 8", approx 30g) 10 x 32w T5ho, half actinic, half 14k. actinics on at 9am off at 9pm, 14k on at 10am off at 8pm. System two (chalice tank, low light, 40breeder) 6 x32w T5ho 3 actinic, 1 fiji pink (I hate this bulb, about to replace it), two 14k. Actinics on at 9am off at 9pm, 14k on at 11am off at 6pm. System 3 (20t, softy tank/softy fuge) cheap old Hagen Glo pc, no idea of the wattage, but it ain't much. Runs from 10am to 8pm.

Small frag system-14" deep frag, 2' x 4' approx 60 gallons +fuge. 2 x 250w mh, 2 x 110w vho super actinics. Vho on at 9am off at 9pm. Mh on at 11 am off at 6pm.

Predator tank-75g + sump. 4 bulb 48" T5ho fixture, unsure of wattage. Two bulbs actinic, two bulbs 10k. Actinics on at 10am off at 9pm, 10k on at 11am off at 7pm.

I do run controllers, I don't run any reactors other than a carbon reactor. The growth in all of my tanks except the predator tank is phenomenal. The predator tank light is subpar and needs to be replaced, but the only thing in that tank is softies and shrooms, and I don't really care if they grow or not. I do run fuges on a reverse light cycle for all of my tanks. The only leds around here are cheapo moon lights.

[Mr Cob]

blue and 50/50 LEDs 24 hrs, T5 actinics 10 hours, 250w MH 20k 7 hours.