LED without Ramp Option

[Gonzo74]

I decided to add a 20 gallon tank to my already existing 150 gallon system (in my sumo room). I use this as a place to keep frags, as pieces of coral either naturally fall off or I have to trim due to growth.

I did not want to spend too much money on lights so I got cheap LED light with full spectrum and dialed it in with my PAR Meter. things inside seem to be doing fine, however, the lights do not have a ramp up or down feature.

Does anyone have any advice for how long I should cycle these lights on? Right now, I have them on for 7 hours of the day. Most corals are sitting between 150-250 PAR.

I am not going to buy another light, so if that is the advise, I can’t afford to follow it right now.

 

[EMeyer]

Ramping up and down are entirely aesthetic, the corals don't care.

In nature all corals get about 12/12, since they only occur near the equator.

Most reefkeepers use somewhere between 8-12 hours of light depending on intensity and algae issues. I'd ignore the lack of ramping altogether and just pick a number in that range.

 

[Gonzo74]

Ramping up and down are entirely aesthetic, the corals don't care.

In nature all corals get about 12/12, since they only occur near the equator.

Most reefkeepers use somewhere between 8-12 hours of light depending on intensity and algae issues. I'd ignore the lack of ramping altogether and just pick a number in that range.

When I started in the hobby in 2013, my LEDs had no ramp up or down option and corals seemed to do fine. Maybe I’ll add another hour to the cycle a little at a time.

I have a very efficient refugium, so have no algae issues anywhere else.

 

[Gonzo74]

Ramping up and down are entirely aesthetic, the corals don't care.

In nature all corals get about 12/12, since they only occur near the equator.

Most reefkeepers use somewhere between 8-12 hours of light depending on intensity and algae issues. I'd ignore the lack of ramping altogether and just pick a number in that range.

I have never really put much thought into all the coral reef locations. Doing a quick search of maps, I can see they mostly thrive between the two tropic lines.

I think I will slowly add some daylight until I get around 9 hours of lights and see where that takes me.

Thanks!

 

[Hooz]

I agree. With current lights, dimmers, controllers, etc, why NOT do it?

Back in the early 90's, I used to use multiple timers to turn on rows of flourescent lights (actinic first, then a row of 50/50s, then a second row of 50/50s) every 30 minutes to simulate sunrise, then off again the same way to simulate a sunset.

I don't know if the corals cared, but I liked it!

I run my lights these days a little lower in intensity than I could run them for the corals I keep, because I like to use a 13 hour light cycle (9am - 10pm). But I also use 2 hours to ramp on either end of that.

Seems to working ok, so...