spearperson
Experienced Reefer
- Location
- Mid 30s East
For a small refugium is there any downside to having the lights on 24hrs? do the lil' critters benefit from a day/night cycle?
I think you mean ( A )sexual and 24/7 lighting will not prevent Caulerpa from going( A )sexual in my experience .If anything this would speed up the process,because it's growing faster, regular cutting works better but whenever it's ready to go there is nothing you can do to stop it.Fuge lights on opposite of tank lights is good to keep pH stable. If you have Calupera macro growing in the fuge keeping the lights on 24/7 is supposed to prevent it from going sexual and fowling the tank.
I keep chaeto macro in my sump/fuge, but I do light it 24/7.
So take your pick, really a personal preference.
I run my fuge lighting on a reverse light cycle from my display tank. This method helps to maintain the stability of the pH in the entire system. When the lights go out, the pH will normally fall. Keeping the lighting on an opposite schedule, you are effectively balancing out the part of the system that has lights off with the part of the system that has them on. Hence the pH should remain much more stable than running the lights in your fuge 24/7.
As for the debate about caulerpa, I don't worry about that because I don't keep caulerpa in any of my systems, knowingly. Recently an unseen, spore of grape caulerpa must have hitchhiked into my display. I know understand why this strain of macro algae is considered so invasive and is outlawed in the state of California. I am not an advocate of keeping caulerpa. There are many other ways to accomplish the nutrient export desired without using such an invasive species. When released into the wild (something EVERY reefer KNOWS not to do :banghead: ) caulerpa can be extremely detrimental to the native fauna in that geographic locale.
Russ
:teeth:Dre, yiou are correct, I did mean sexual. I did say that 24/7 lighting was SUPPOSED to prevent that, but I too did not find that to be the case.
I'm considering adding a timer to my sump/guge and setting opposite photo periods. There's enough critters that have made their way down there that deserve a proper day/night cycle <g>