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Originally Posted by Triggerjay  So what happened to frankies experiment? |
hey, yeah, what happened frankie?
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Hey prow, I have a Q for you... Most run a reverse lighting schedule on the fuge, to help prevent large PH swings,.... BUT when the macro grows (while lit) it produces oxygen. Wouldn't you want this to produce the oxygen during the day when the main tanks metabolism is at it's highest, to provide as much oxygen as possible for fish, corals, etc? I run about the same lighting schedule on the fuge as I do the display. I have little in the way of a PH swing. maybe .1 at the most. I used to always run my fuge reverse cycle, but changed my thinking on this theory. what are your thoughts on this?
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reverse lighting is really not needed and not really intended for low O2 issues. its more for dealing with high CO2 issues. since most tanks dont have CO2 issues no need for interventioins. normally photosynthesis and cellular respirations will be equal
keep in mind CO2 is used in photosynthesis and is a byproduct of respirations/ as O2 is used in cellular respirations and is a byproduct of photosynthesis, so no need to run reverse lighting under normal conditions.
it should be noted however, that low CO2 and/or high O2 levels will inhibit carbon fixation via calvin cycle. you dont want as much O2 as possible, just enough so carbon fixation is not inhibited. just noted this so you can see that high CO2 promotes photosynthesis. where as high O2 levels favors celluar repirations. normally these reactions balance with eachother.
but if your running a Ca+reactor or have high indoor CO2 issues reverse ilghting can help prevent, or better said, reduce ph swings via reducing accumulations.
however, if your wanting increased nutrient exporting, reverse lighting can help. higher CO2 levels are wanted here and provided while the DT lighting is off. in a tank with normal levels it will have a minimal impact though. cellular repirations will follow suit as increased photosynthesis adds/increases O2, to a point. not sure if i said this clear or not. photosynthesis can get complicated with all the various processes that get involved. on my new tank setup i plan on using macros only to deal with the excess CO2 coming from my Ca+ reactor. as a bonus i get increased exporting of nutrients due to the available CO2. for others they may be wanting macros to mainly export nutrients, so running the same photoperiod allows the macros in the fug to directly compete with algaes in the DT. on the other hand for exproting, running reverse lighting may aid in the growth of the macros in the fuge as more CO2 is available within the system. but in a tank that runs with normal CO2/O2 (ph) levels i dout there would be much difference. for some with high indoor CO2 or if the tank is unable to blow off the continuous CO2 additions from a Ca+ reactor or other, reverse lighting will help big time. here you need to take into account the tanks respirations, some tanks do not have enough gas exchange to blow off excess CO2 so reverse lightings helps with saturations levels. other tanks may have plenty of gas exchange to deal with any excess CO2 and actually need additional CO2 to promote growth for exporting. remember a 100gal tank that is 3 feet tall does not have the capability a 100gal tank 1 foot tall has, talking about surface exhange here.
this post could be confussing because i am talking about two different things. macros used for CO2/ph (gas exchange) issues and macros for exporting nutrients. both effect the other. so for ph issues(high CO2 levels) reverse lighting is a good intervention to help stabilize the ph. for exporting if CO2/O2 are at normal levels reverse lighting will not do much. reverse lighting, IMO, only needs to be used if excessive CO2 is present and your ph is being depressed at night because of it.
i think i can say this better if its hard to follow.