Poll: Do you ramp your display lights up and down?

[dbl]

A question I see from time to time is how long should your lights ramp up/down on the display. So let's take a look and see what people are doing. I realize some just have them on or off so that is an option as well.

 

[C-Reefer]

Sunrise/sunset is 30 minutes starting at 7:30, this goes up to full blues at 8, then whites ramp up for an hour to full mixed at 9. Then just sunset 30 minutes at 8:30, then moonlight for 1 1/2 hours.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I sort of ramp up and down my lights, having sunrise, morning, mid day, afternoon and sunset. I run 2, 120W Apollos (not controllable) and 1, 120W (165W) Mars Aqua with blues at 100% and whites about 33%. With these three fixtures I can control the two channels, white and blues. In addition I have 2, 4 foot IceCap LED nightlights (relatively bright), that are part of the cycle. The cycle mimics equator lighting.....a 12 hour light period.

Sunrise (Nightlights) ------------ 1 hr ------- 10AM-11AM
Morning (Blues only) ------------ 3 hr ------- On at 11AM
Mid-day (Blues and Whites) --- 4 hr -------- 2PM - 6PM
Afternoon (Blues) ----------------3 hr -------- Off at 9PM
Sunset (Nightlights) --------------1 hr ------- 9PM-10PM

I will most likely be installing Fathom Hydras when I switch out my current (broken) tank. These lights are fully controllable, with ramping, so I'll be following this thread.

 

[Waters]

My lights are always in a ramp up or down phase, other than a few hours in the middle of the day.

 

[Gungo]

No ramping.. Blues on at 9:00 AM till 7:00 PM, whites on at 12:00 PM till 5:00 PM.

 

[Gareth elliott]

my ramping schedule.

 

[sfin52]

Mine lights turn on at 1500 off at 2200

 

[ca1ore]

I try to replicate the natural cycles.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

My Kessil A160s turn on at 1100, full blast from 1400 to 2000, and turn off at 2300.

 

[Duane Clark]

I have fairly long ramp up and down times

 

[jsker]

4 hr ramp up and 4 hr ramp down on a 12 hr cycle.

 

[Brew12]

4 hr ramp up and 4 hr ramp down on a 12 hr cycle.

This looks very similar to mine, except shift everything 2 hours to the left!

 

[redfishbluefish]

For what it's worth, here's the default ramping cycle for a Fathom Hydra. Between each time set, it ramps up or down to the next respective percentage.

 

[Greybeard]

T5's. Non-dim-able. 4 tubes (blue, purple, actinic) come on at 11:30, 4 tubes (blue, white) come on at 1. Reverse the cycle in the evening. Ref light comes on an hour after main lights go off, and off an hour before they come on. No fancy stuff here.

Nobody seems to mind

 

[Crabs McJones]

I was very recently given some advice from someone with a very similar setup to mine, and he's having extremely great success with the schedule. So I've changed mine to one hour ramp up and one hour ramp down.

 

[jsker]

This looks very similar to mine, except shift everything 2 hours to the left!

I took me about a year to get were I am at now. I am sure there will be some small adjustments, until you pointed it out. Yes I a more subtle ram up than down.

 

[mitch91175]

I have a T5/LED hybrid setup that I am running. This is what I currently have:

LED schedule:

T5 schedule:

 

[SDboatguy]

LED / T 5 s. 5 hour ramp up / down with my Hydras...2 B+ come on 3 hours into the ramp up , an hour later 2 C+ come on.An hour later the LEDs peak for 4 hours...then reverse the T 5s - an hour after peak the 2C + go off, another hour later the 2 B+ go off ,then 3 more hours for the LEDS ramping down.

 

[ca1ore]

BTW, someone usually (and invariably) will state that ramping up/down is 'for the hobbyist, and the animals don't care'. Typically it is from somebody who has never tried it. While I would agree that light ramping is hardly the difference between success and failure, the fish absolutely notice. It is also true that many of the LED fixtures do a lousy job of properly ramping. I used the v1 reefbreeders fixtures for a while and they didn't get anywhere close to a full ramp up or down; likewise for the Kessil spots. Both shut off at around 12% (even if the controller says differently). But if you have a fixture, like the Gen4 Radion, that will dim down completely to darkness, the observable behavior changes in the fish is quite fascinating.

 

[d2mini]

2 hour ramp periods for me.