Overlighting Sps

[Bob 1000]

Some fish will definitely find 24 hour lights stressful, depending on what types of fish you have. Many wrasses have a definite sleep cycle where they bury themselves in the sand. I would say almost all vertebrate need a sleep cycle, you cant just keep swimming around for ever.
Can you test this in a special tank without fish? otherwise could you shade a portion of the tank to create a dark refuge for your fish?

A dark refuge wow this sounds like a great idea before I start I will have to definitely have to take a lot into cosideration..
Hence,, the reason for this thread...
Thanks for all the input please keep it coming,,, I really would like to here about all opinions pertaining to fish and corals..

 

[Bob 1000]

This thread is full of "innovations"

LOL,,,that's me... Before I go through with something this drastic I am exploring a lot of angles... Also need lot's of input from Sps owners...

 

[corallimorph]

Bob,
Have you thought about creating 2- day/night cycles within a 24 hour day, I belive they do something like this when breeding canaries.
This way you may be able to expose the corals to a little more light during say,... 2-8 hour photo periods a day,with a 2-4 hour "night time" phases,..if you don't try something like this, I might-Dave

 

[Bob 1000]

i have never lit my corals less than 12hrs.. 24hrs for a week only made the blues in my tank pop more... The yellow millis have green polyps now and the red millis got dull like a redish brown... 400w 12k reeflux is what I'm running now... Looking to switch to 20k to see the difference...

 

[jackson6745]

i have never lit my corals less than 12hrs.. 24hrs for a week only made the blues in my tank pop more... The yellow millis have green polyps now and the red millis got dull like a redish brown... 400w 12k reeflux is what I'm running now... Looking to switch to 20k to see the difference...

You ran 400w bulbs for 24hrs?

 

[Wes]

ime, too much light has been a bad thing...

 

[Bob 1000]

ime, too much light has been a bad thing...

How has it been a bad thing???

 

[Wes]

How has it been a bad thing???

for me, my colors deepened after shortening the photoperiod..

Here is another thing to think about. Studies show a decline in photosynthesis during the time of day when the sun is the brightest. Leaving your lights on 24rs a day could possibly slow your growth... I found this on reefcentral.

Corals growing in shallow reef lagoons are exposed to very high levels of light, especially during summer. Excess light can cause damage to the photosystems. Most photosynthetic organisms have a range of mechanisms to dissipate excess light and protect themselves from absorbing too much light. These mechanisms include down-regulation of photosynthesis, non-photochemical quenching and use of the xanthophyll cycle.



We found that three species of coral (Acropora aspera, Goniastrea sp. and Porites sp.) which grow in the shallow lagoon of Heron Island, all displayed an apparent mid-day down-regulation. The above figure shows the change in electron transport rate in Acropora aspera as related to changes in diurnal light. The decline in photosynthetic activity corresponded with the period of highest light. During the afternoon the photosynthetic activity recovered, this implies that this was a regulatory response, not damage from the high light..... by UTS Science

 

[Bob 1000]

Good info, and yes I think my corals have slowed in growth but the colors are still there...

 

[georgelc86]

I have read that during the first 3-4 hours of natural daylight on a reef provides the coral with enough energy for the remainder of the day. Which pretty much means 6am to about 10am. By the noon time the corals become over saturated with light and therefor do not continue their photosynthetic process. Test on xenia and montipora have shown closure of all polyps during the noon hours. Depending on the how much energy the coral expends it will recontinue its photosynthetic process until it once again reaches its saturation. Yes the color remains because the zoo algae are acclimated to your lighting intensity, but some functions of the organism itself somewhat shutdown. During the night time cycle the corals continue on with their processes depending more heavily on cellular O2/CO2 exchange. The nocturnal time as well as temperature and other factors bring about feeding for most corals. Are you going to kill the corals, I dont think so. But for the overall health of the tank I would say continue a night cycle. Thats unless you dont care to much about the fish in the tank or smaller guys like bristle worms then Times Square it is. Keep us posted as to what your findings are.

 

[Bob 1000]

You know guys,,, I was thinking and my closed system differs from the ocean and the sun a lot... The oceans parameters change a lot slower than a closed system no matter how pristine your water... Just by adding food.. The sun doesn't come out at 400watts either and stay lit for 4 hours or 12... So these studies really don't hold much water compared to my closed system... I do think some of these facts can be transfered to the closed system, but maybe with some differences.. My Po4 did go up in july and my purple with green polyps acro turned purple all the way down to the base which it wouldn't do before with a 12hr light cycle... But I can't tell if that was because of the increased meaty foods or the light cycle????
I am now dropping my Po4 to nearly undetectable levels using multiple methods.. I will see if this acro will hold these deep blue/purple color all the way down or not..

 

[Deanos]

I want to see the milli of yours that grows 1" every 3 weeks

 

[Bob 1000]

That's the superman milli.. and it table tops... Multiple tops come up as I break new ones off of the mother colony, but a frag won't grow that fast.. It also doesn't take a good pic,, but I'm expecting some good shots to be taken by next week.. I'll make sure that one of the pics I post first for all the skeptics,,,lol..

 

[Deanos]

but I'm expecting some good shots to be taken by next week.. I'll make sure that one of the pics I post first for all the skeptics,,,lol..

Before and after please

 

[Bob 1000]

Not a problem.. The problem is getting someone with a good cam,,lol... Jonathan said he didn't forget me but I guess he's been really busy..

 

[ILikeFish]

If you wanted to increase the time your lights were on I wonder if turning them off for several periods throughout the day would be a good idea. It would be as if they would get 2 days in one day. Would this help even out swings in water parameters that naturally result for the day / night cycle?

 

[CyanoMagnet]

That's why I'm starting a grass square in the middle of the dis[play to ready my tank for a 24 hour lighting cycle for about 3 months.. If no one can tell me it's bad...

My understanding is a coral will only photosynthetise for part of the time, and the rest will just raise your electric bill. But let us know how it works out.

 

[Bob 1000]

Update on the 24.. I manage to let something go along the way and ended up grow some hair and feather algae.. The colors on the corals are all great still... But I need someone with a hanna to test phosphates Salifert says 0.. That's Nitrates also... Mind you I've been using my phosphate option for the last 2 weeks which cycles phosphates down to 0 every 4 hours.. I also have been running 2 phosban reactors also.. This almost killed my supergirl monti by lowering to quickly causing RTN...
I even had a 1 day out break of ich on the 2 new orange shoulder(juv) tangs 1.5"... Totally covered but only for 1 day, now totally fine.. Go figure..

I think this is a conclusion to this experiment.. It did no harm in a 1 month period to corals or fish, but didn't do any good either... As far as algae growth way to much I pulled so much out in the last 2 weeks.. I would think it absorbed everything..
Nothing grew faster except bad algae...