Metal Halide Photo Period?

[Witfull]

zoinks~~~rutrow

 

[marinelover]

9 hrs of MH 12 hours of actinic.

 

[Woodstock]

I have begun to increase my 15k MH photo period up to 12 hrs.

 

[Wrasstaman]

I have recently cut mine back to 6 hours. After a horrible experience with hair algae, one of the steps I took was to cut my lights back. I have 2 SE 400W 20,000K MH's and a 400W DE 20,000K MH over my 125! The 12 hours plus lighting was just asking for it from the undesireable algaes.
I was slowly removing my dsb, which must have released nutrients into the water. This resulted in the hair algae attack from h_ll!
I will add that my refugium was full of reef mud, which I think was a serious mistake that I made trying to copy the miracle mud filter system.
Over time I plan to bring the lighting slowly back up to 10 hours as this survey shows most of you use.
Thanks for your help RS, my fingers are still crossed that the hair algae is gone!
Wrassta

 

[Woodstock]

Ahhhh... I had a horrible algae outbreak when i removed my sand bed also! Keep at it.. the algae will soon starve and disapear! I guess the stirred sand released a boat load of PO4 into the water~

 

[Witfull]

400 watters over a 125,,,thats some intensity.

 

[Wrasstaman]

Enough was enough and with hair algae growing like you can not imagine and killing many of my corals I finally removed all of the old dirty filthy sand. I also removed all of my old hair algae ridden LR and placed it in a recently acquired 100Gallon livestock tank. I had accumulated many kinds over the years, marshall islands, fiji, buna, carribean shelf, and other hand selected cherry pieces. I hope to recycle the rock by not having any light over the livestock tank and after some time hooking it inline with my display. I do believe that dilution is the best cure for pollution! I also purchased some new live rock, since the lfs (Gerber's) had the best I have ever seen available and it was 90+% cured. So $500 (cha-ching) later, I am bare bottom, new incredible rock, and corals beginning to grow like mad. Just the polyp extension alone that resulted after the sand was gone made it all worth the work.
So now that I seem to be on top of the hair algae, I am very interested in photoperiod! I do seem to have lots of light, but with the 20,000K bulbs, it is not IMO too much light, but just about right! I would really love to hear if anyone would be kind enough to suggest a lighting scheme for me to follow! Most of my corals are sps, (90% acropora) and I also have VHO actinic supplementation and moon lights. So I would be much abliged if all of you would let me know when you would turn them on/off.
TIA, and thanks for your help,
Wrassta

 

[Woodstock]

Wow.. great for you! I would burn the MH for 8-10 hrs and the actinics for 12 hrs. Let's see some pics! Your gallery is empty

 

[Witfull]

your SPS will be thanking you emensely for the BB. your reward will be growth!

 

[Wrasstaman]

OK!
I am a single Dad with sons 9 and 11 years old. Yes that is my excuse, but I will try to take some pictures with my new Nikon D70s after I get home from the school's open house tonight. I have the 105macro Nikkor lens, which should rock!
If not tonight, I will eventually get some time for me so I can share some pictures...
Thanks for the suggestion on the lighting Woodstock! I will slowly bring them back up and keep my fingers crossed that the hair algae is gone. I lost too many corals from the algae.
Wrassta

 

[mps9506]

Very true Mike. Do you run additional actinics? If so, for how long? FOr viewing purposes, I run 2 x 96 watt PC actinics for 12 hrs. I expect that these also provide some energy to the corals.

I don't, but only because I haven't diverted the money towards additional actnics yet. If I had the money I would probably run actinics for an additional 2-3 hours on each end of the metal halide photoperiod, not because I think the corals need it, but because I like to look at the tank with actinics on
I have no idea if the intensity of those actinics do anything for the corals, I haven't seen any data regarding the intensity of various actinic lights.

 

[Woodstock]

Now there is an idea... some testing on the various actinic lights! PC, VHO and T5's.... where is sanjay??

 

[Tigahboy]

Oops. I voted for 11, but it's in fact 10 hours. lights turn on at 6PM and turn off at 4AM.

 

[Witfull]

Oops. I voted for 11, but it's in fact 10 hours. lights turn on at 6PM and turn off at 4AM.

fixed your vote.

 

[Kensn]

I voted 8hrs, each one is on 8 hrs, but they are staggered by 2 hours. I am so confused..... I have 10 hours of total MH time, but only 8hrs a piece..I paniced, didn't know what to do. :bouncebox

 

[Woodstock]

Explain your MH set up Ken... you have 2 MH? Different kelvins? Do you have any actinics?

 

[Kensn]

I run 2 250wt SE XM 10ks. 2 46.5" VHO Atinic. Vho on at 8am, MH1 on at 9am, MH2 on at 11am, MH1 off at 5pm MH2 off at 7pm VHO off at 8pm. All are on Ice Cap electroinc ballast. I run the ballasts off realys controled by a PLC, so I am in the process of programimng a shift in lighting periods depending on the time of year. Nothing drastic, but a slight shift in the lenth of time they are on. I also have a Ice Cap Pro Moonlight I won during an Ice Cap photo contest. I am working on cylcing that time period also.

 

[Woodstock]

I really like the way you stagger your MHs. I wish that was possible with my set up but unfortunately both my MH bulbs are on the same switch. I also like your idea on the seasonal lighting timers... That would be ideal~ Once you get it going, I would be very intersted in how you manage it!

 

[Kensn]

As of right now my plc controls the lighting as far as the on and off times. I just need to manipulate the program to add and subtract the time on a cycle. You can look at my web page to get a little info on the setup.

http://home.comcast.net/~kensn/

The main tank shot is a bit old by a few months.

Ken

 

[Woodstock]

Very nice site Ken! Beautiful tank. I LOVE your purple tuxedo urchin!! Ohhhh I want one!!

...i'm allowed to hijack my own thread ...