severe temperature fluctuation, beneficial?

[Opsanus tau]

You just said it Jay without, without saying it directly; they are two different things.

I also take the SAME two light meters(Both with built, and calibrated custom with 100' cables) with me out to my site as well as some local patch reefs, and have NEVER gotten the same reading , in the same place in SEVEN YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!

and we freak out if our bulbs are getting a few months too old?

I see weeks with cloud cover that would ...that might gravitate me towards someones post a while back about the benefits of turnning your lights off for three days straight or something like that,..remember that post?

I love this subject...it has makes me realize I know nothing about reef tanks-Dave

 

[BigJay]

being a fellow diver in florida waters all my life its one of the reasons I scoff at people that say halides are a must. I've seen corals in areas of the reef that are on the wrong side of the sun, wrong side of the current or my favorite under the bridges. Guess something forgot to tell them they aren't suppose to live without that little light.

 

[BigAl07]

and we freak out if our bulbs are getting a few months too old?

The sun's intensity may change but the sun is FULL-Spectrum. Our lights pale (pun intended) in comparison to the sun in any respect. The problem is that our bulbs are designed for a specific spectrum *very narrow one at that*and with just a few months of age many brands/types of bulbs easily "shift" out of the designed and intended spectrum.

I see weeks with cloud cover that would ...that might gravitate me towards someones post a while back about the benefits of turnning your lights off for three days straight or something like that,..remember that post?

With all due respect there is a lot of difference between "Cloud Cover" and "lightless tanks". Even on the cloudiest of days there is still a lot of light (aka energy) form the sun reaching the ground and ocean's surface. We have a reefing member here at RS (PaulB) who just installed solar panels and even on a completely cloudy day he was making SOME energy.

I love this subject...it has makes me realize I know nothing about reef tanks-Dave/QUOTE This and just about EVERY other subject with NATURE does that for me. I enjoy hearing other people's ideas and their "Thinking out loud".

Allen

 

[BigAl07]

being a fellow diver in florida waters all my life its one of the reasons I scoff at people that say halides are a must. I've seen corals in areas of the reef that are on the wrong side of the sun, wrong side of the current or my favorite under the bridges. Guess something forgot to tell them they aren't suppose to live without that little light.

Jay I think you'll get a kick out the Liquid Medium link I posted last week. James did some light reading FROM several reef places and it was shocking at how LOW the light readings ARE!! I'll have to try and find that link again...

 

[Opsanus tau]

Here is one thing I would like to share here is that I also Always take a water sample home with me,( 5-15 minuet ride home ,and then do the alk and cal with the same test kits I use on my tanks, and it is ALWAYS; dkh;7.4, and Ca;450...Always!( except for one Salifert kit that gave me a 7.7 reading ONCE!).
So there is the only stable numbers that I have found to be steady and true and similar to our tanks, although I will start to panic a bit when my alk goes that low in a closed system, but because of this exact subject, "I am flying some very close to the water"...with that 7.4 dkh( most of my systems I keep from 8-10)-Dave
-Dave

 

[BigAl07]

Here is the link I was talking aboutReef Aquarium Lighting:
How Much Light is Enough? by James W. Fatherree

 

[BigJay]

Here is the link I was talking aboutReef Aquarium Lighting:
How Much Light is Enough? by James W. Fatherree

fabulous link AL. Thanks for sharing. I often considered the reason why people are unsuccesful with lower light units is lack of dedication. People that tend to spend 1000's of dollars on lighting units tend to be more dedicated to seeing thier tank thrive. Of course thats a gross assumption. But it would stand reason that if your tank is less then perfect and lighting is sub par (pun inteded) your going to see lack of growth or even death. Almost all tanks that have seen in my life that have at least a decent PC fixture most coral deaths can be tied to other factors like phosphates.
But I digress because as I've said before I don't want to make my opinion everyones and I hate debating this issue. For the believers that they must have extreme light as long as they aren't bleaching thier corals are doing no harm in doing so. And to the less then dedicated to keep water paramters perfect having more light may serve a purpose. Let me clarify that before someone says ok so if I buy metal halides I don't have to do water changes? LOL thats not what I am saying at all.
None of my ideas in this arena are grounded in scientific fact , meaning I've never had the means to collect enough data to prove this one way or the other. Matter of factly few have and why reefing is largely considered experimental even to this day.
But we are also getting off course. Great discussion though.

 

[Opsanus tau]

Big Al I think you should really read the posts before coming in as this "Know-it -all".
Did I ever say turnning your lights for three days off and cloud cover are the same thing?,......no I did not !!!!!!!, I suggested a trend of instability in lighting.

Are you employed as a professional Marine Biologist?

 

[cbrownfish]

:lurk: :invisible