MH duration
- Thread starter herpsandreefs
- Start date
I used to keep my SPS tank at 83 all the time. 
This way, when the tank temperature spiked to 84 or 85 in the summer...well it wasn't really a spike at all. Keep your tank at 78, then get a spike to 85 and see what happens. :?
Point is, above 82 is not an issue unless you've been keeping your tank rather cool, the actual temps where these corals come from is often 83 or so. I ran my SPS tank at 83 until a took it down when moving.
In my opinion, a 10 hour MH period is just a waste of energy. Between 6-8 hours is plenty for a display tank in my experience.
Jim
This way, when the tank temperature spiked to 84 or 85 in the summer...well it wasn't really a spike at all. Keep your tank at 78, then get a spike to 85 and see what happens. :?
Point is, above 82 is not an issue unless you've been keeping your tank rather cool, the actual temps where these corals come from is often 83 or so. I ran my SPS tank at 83 until a took it down when moving.
In my opinion, a 10 hour MH period is just a waste of energy. Between 6-8 hours is plenty for a display tank in my experience.
Jim
The problem is that the only supplemental lighting I will have are 2 55 watt 24" atinic PC's. These won't give much light. Maybe I'll just have to add more suplemental lighting, another set of 55's with 50/50's? Should I not expect more SPS growth from longer lighting MH periods?
Just to clarify on sps, some corals may be subjected to temperatures of such. But many that come in, mainly deepwater, comes from cooler temperatures (70's). They can survive in 83 F, but I've noticed better around 79.5-80. The key really is stability, as I think was stated in the previous post.
-Josh
-Josh
A problem that is mitigated almost completely by stocking farmed frags, which we should all be doing anyway. :wink:
Stability is indeed the key, until you don't have stabilty anymore, and then the question becomes the magnitude of the temperature spike.
All I'm saying is, if you live in an area, and have a setup where the ambient temps are likey to drive your tank temperature up in the summer, keeping your tank on the higher end of the temp scale might be wise to minimize the above problem.
I had spikes to 86 a few times and didn't bat an eye, with no losses - this is because I kept the tank at 83 all the time. Had the tank been maintained at 78.... I would have experienced a wipe-out in all likelyhood. Then I read posts about people panicking about a spike to 83...
Stability is indeed the key, until you don't have stabilty anymore, and then the question becomes the magnitude of the temperature spike.
All I'm saying is, if you live in an area, and have a setup where the ambient temps are likey to drive your tank temperature up in the summer, keeping your tank on the higher end of the temp scale might be wise to minimize the above problem.
I had spikes to 86 a few times and didn't bat an eye, with no losses - this is because I kept the tank at 83 all the time. Had the tank been maintained at 78.... I would have experienced a wipe-out in all likelyhood. Then I read posts about people panicking about a spike to 83...
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