Natural Reef Photoperiod vs. Reef Tanks

TCK Corals
Jump to Last
DBarsotti

DBarsotti

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 4, 2009
Messages
1,063
Reaction score
32
Location
Salinas, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So I've been putting some thought into this lately.. I typically run my lighting for a13+ hours. This is mainly so i can feed my fish when i go to work and after work, i run my system at night to save on power.. It starts with the blue LEDs for half an hour.. Then the t-5's.. several hours later the metal halides kick on and run for 8 hours... Then they go off in reverse order.

What sort of photo period are you running?

On the natural reef the amount of light and the duration (around 14 hours) far exceed anything we come close to in our systems.

I've read people only running 8 hour photo periods, even 6, claiming this was more beneficial for the coral.. Wouldn't trying to replicate the natural photoperiod be the most favorable idea?
Where does this idea that less light is better for corals come from? how is this justified? I mean, what is the argument that a coral enjoys less light than what is provided in nature?


thoughts?
 
Last edited:
Deltec
My lights are on for almost 15 hours a day. I have always done it this way, even when I had halides and T5s. The halides would run for 8-9 hours a day with the T5s on for 15.

LEDs save me hundreds by not heating my house and making the chiller run all day.
If people are cutting down the photo period this would make my leds last longer.
 
Last edited:
wow
I guess I dont leave my lights on long enough

3pm vho's come on, 4:30 pm mh comes on, mh shuts off at 10pm and vho's off at 11:30pm

I've never had any problems and all my corals are healthy and happy.
I have never seen anyone's lps corals oppen larger than in my tank. sps grow fast and branchy instead of stubby....
but I dont run skimmers, sump anything really just powerheads,rock, and sand. 120g reef has been going for close to 3 years now.

I think most corals can adapt and supplement their natural light requirements with food. thats my experiance anyway
 
Last edited:
Deltec
Yeah I'm by no means saying that a healthy reef can't be grown with short photo periods. I'm mostly curious as to what are the effects on growth? Or also would this make the sps unable to spawn in captivity? Better or less color? I'd be really interested to see 2 frags grown in a short and long photoperiod tank and see which grows faster or has better color.
 
for the clownfish/anemone tank... I have it set up....

(2) Blue+ -- 14:30 to 00:30
(1) Fiji Purple & (2) Blue+ -- 16:00 to 23:00

I have two more bulbs (2) Blue Special but I haven't ran those yet. I thought this was the cause of my bleaching but I narrowed it down to a defective heater. had my tank on mid 80's for a day or two, I think. will run the (2) Blue Special for about 4-5 hours. :)

time will tell if this photo period will benefit the BTA's. I'll keep track of it. :)

awesome topic for sure. and it'll be a great read for anyone getting in the hobby.
 
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
On the reef they are only getting about 4 hours of intense light. With my t5 I run two blue + from 2 until 10pm and the other 5 bulbs come on at 4:30 and off at nine. It is an sps tank and sometimes I think it is to much light.
 
Corals need the energy they get from zooxanthellae during the day to grow.
 
I ran my metal halides only 5-6 hours a day. I started with 12 hours and then read about people getting same growth and color with less so I started experimenting. I would cut my lights back 2 hours and then observe for a month. I was able to cut down to 5-6 hours and still got the same growth and observed the same color. For me it was about trying to get the same results and spending less money. I was initially looking to cut the photo period back a couple hours but to cut it in half meant more money for corals...lol
 
Last edited:
Top Shelf Aquatics
This got me thinking so I did a search and came up with this. How coral reefs grow

I may cut back to 10-11 hours a day, with 8-9 hours of full spectrum light. 15 may be over kill.
 
Last edited:
BRS
I run my DT for around 6 hours, and my frag tank for 4. Seems to work for me, good steady growth and my colour can be good depending on other factors.
 
Great article Zombie. Thanks for posting it.

I really like the Coralscience.org website. The quality of information made available to the average reefkeeper is hard to match.

Here are some points that I think are worth highlighting.

"Corals deposit significantly more calcium carbonate during the day; for the stony coral Stylophora pistillata this is about four times as much2. For Galaxea fascicularis this has been found as well; these differences in growth can be recorded as soon as 10 minutes after the light has been switched on."

"During the day, the pH-level of the calicoblastic fluid lies around 9.3, and around 8 at night."

"Research has shown that 70-75% of the bicarbonate budget originates from the conversion of intracellular CO2!2This means that only 25-30% of the bicarbonate ions are extracted from the water column."

Why do corals grow faster during the day? (I found this section helpful.)

"The first process which may increase aragonite precipitation is the high production of ATP by the calicoblastic cells, as they receive significant amounts of carbohydrates from the zooxanthellae; the measured ATP content in Galaxea fascicularis tissue was about 35% higher in light-incubated colonies compared to dark-incubated ones."

"A second process which mediates light-enhanced calcification is an increase in tissue pH levels during the day, as zooxanthellae take up more CO2"
"The third possible reason for elevated calcification during the day may be the activation of the Ca2+/H+ pump, which is light-sensitive, thereby pumping more building blocks to the skeleton3."

(quotes from Wijgerde's article: How coral reefs grow)
 
Last edited:
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
I run mine on the same schedule as the carribean reefs with the SUN function of the Apex controller. I dim the blues from 0 to 100% over the course of a half hour and then dim the whites from 0 to 100% over the course of the next two hours. I reverse the process for sunset.

CJ
 
SO i may be wrong on this.. But a fellow long time reefer here in Orlando told e that the color we see on sps is called zoozenthelly (not sure I spelled that right) but form what i can remember he said that if the sps is exposed to very long periods of light it releases the zoozenthelly which makes us see less color on the coral. I run my MH's for 6 hours a day and seem to have decent color on my sps. I use to run them 9 hours and noticed better coloration with the 6 hours. It also helps with the electric bill :tongue:
 
I run my LEDs from 1030 AM to 930 PM and moon lights from 930 AM, off at 1035AM and on at 9PM and off at 1030PM. I know of a neighbor who runs his MH 2 hours a day and SVHO for 12.

There is a huge discussion on another forum about photoinhibition and the effect on corals. Remember, the tropics get a lot of cloud cover we don't simulate in our tank.
 
View ReefStash's latest YouTube video!
Zombie said:
My lights are on for almost 15 hours a day. I have always done it this way, even when I had halides and T5s. The halides would run for 8-9 hours a day with the T5s on for 15.

LEDs save me hundreds by not heating my house and making the chiller run all day.
If people are cutting down the photo period this would make my leds last longer.
Click to expand...
really ?
How about your lighting system ? any pictures or introductions ? :angel:
 
TCK Corals

IF YOU HAD TO TAKE A REEFING EXAM, WOULD YOU PASS?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 32 45.7%

  • Not yet, but I have one that I want to buy in mind!

    Votes: 9 12.9%

  • No.

    Votes: 26 37.1%

  • Other (please explain).

    Votes: 3 4.3%
See comments…

New Posts

World Wide Corals
Tidal Gardens
Dinkins Aquatic Gardens
Nutramar Foods
Deltec
Chewy.com
TCK Corals
Top Shelf Aquatics
New Posts
Back
Top