Running lights at night vs day

[jacobSD]

hello everybody,

Im trying to figure out ways to save $ as the electricity in San Diego is expensive as heck. Would there be any negative effects in running the lights at night vs the day? As long I kept the area around the aquarium dark. Just want to work out some cost savings. Thanks!

 

[Oscar47f]

well if your planning to run your display tank lights at night, you won't really get to enjoy the tank during the day... some lights don't take that much power like LEDs

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

You can run shorter photo periods too.
I'm in Sd as well and yea they're greedy here.
I went LED and adjusted power by using peak intensity only for w few hours.

What lights do you have. And what coral.

 

[jacobSD]

I'm currently running led/t5. I'm only home during the day on the weekends anyways. Besides that, I work from 7-6 M-F.

 

[jacobSD]

I have a mixed reef but starting to go more with sps. I have 3 hydra 26 and 4 t5s

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

well you can set the led for a long slow ramp and the t5 for just the peak. I have a very long lighting period. its on when we get up till we go to bed, but the intensity is quite low for the first several hours and the last as well.
so if you have a six or eight hour peak, you can use the t5 for 4 to 8 of those.