How long are you running your led lights?
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Keithcorals
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Blues 10hrs with hour ramp
Whites 6 hours 20min ramp
Whites 6 hours 20min ramp
Blues 10 hours, whites 8 hours
Ron Reefman
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Tampa Bay Reef Keepers
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The photosynthesis the zooxanthellae do to feed your corals only takes 4 to 6 hours. Any thing more than that is strictly for your viewing pleasure. The coral and it's zooxanthellae don't mind 10 or 12 hours of light, but it doesn't do much for the coral in terms of growth or health. On the reef the zooxanthellae works from about 9 or 10am till 2 or 3pm. Before and after that the sun is too low in the sky to be bright enough to get the photosynthesis process running, so that is the cycle they have built into their genes.
I do a 6 hour sunrise, 2 hour midday and 8 hour sunset.
I do a 6 hour sunrise, 2 hour midday and 8 hour sunset.
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Danhht
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My led light is Spectra M029. So I can not set ram up and down for it, but I can use timmer to turn on and off following the time you said. How do you think about it?
Ron Reefman
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I assume (I know... not a good thing to do) that you have 2 channels of light control?
You want to run a 'midday' intensity for a minimum of 5 or 6 hours. I personally think that 6 to 8 is better. More than 8 really doesn't help much in terms of photosynthesis of the zooxanthellae that help feed our corals. They shut down photosynthesis after some length of time, typically about 4 to 6 hours. But you want an extra hour because it takes the zooxanthellae about that long to get the process started once there is enough light.
Think about coral down even just 5 to 10 feet deep at a shallow reef. The sun doesn't penetrate water very well in the first place. Then consider the rising and setting sun trying to get through the water at very steep angles. It just isn't enough. So it's really from about 9 or 10 in the morning to 2 or 3 in the afternoon that the sun is high in the sky and has a much more direct angle at getting intense light to the coral.
So for many, many generations, the zooxanthellae has become genetically inclined to only work for 5 to 7 hours.
But longer lighting times may in fact help with other processes in the coral. The production of other chemicals and pigments may benefit from some longer light exposure. And even up to 14 hours of light doesn't seem to be harmful to corals. Although they do need some dark recuperation time, probably 6 to 8 hours.
Semisonyx
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Look up DLI. Essentially, think of light in terms of rainfall. The stronger the light (up to a point), the shorter your photoperiod needs to be before the coral hits photosaturation. You can run low intensity for 14hrs, or high intensity for 3-4 hours to get the same amount of photons in a light cycle. Having some form of par or lux meter is very helpful to determine what you can get away with.
