What's your photo period?

[newsalt]

I wanted to know what photo periods others use.

Thanks

[Montanareefer]

Not very long as I hate taking a pic of me!

Nothing at the moment as waiting to set up new tank.

[sincityreefer]

lol, well yes i agree pictures of me=blah!. lol,
ok seriously
i like about 10 or so a day of MH. My timers are set to come on at 11am and turn off at 9pm. After 9 i have a moonlighting system that stays on during the night. Soon i plan to get some atinic VHO's then i am planning on a 12hr photo period with 10hrs of MH and 1 hour of sunrise/sunset VHO only. JMHO.
In looking at your sig, i see you have PC lights. I would probally just then them 10-12hrs a day. I tried to make my lighting schedule around my schedule so i could see the tank lit as much as possible. (the reason for my 11am sunrise), good luck, HTH.

[mick77]

My VHOs (4 110W, all actintic) come on at noon and shut off at about midnight- midnight 30. My MHs (250W 10K) come on at 2 and stay on util around 10PM. I have a custom built moonlight strip with eight bulbs that stays on indefinately. All of this is on a 100gal. tank. Hope this helps! By the way, my MH light on the right side comes on 1 hour earlier than the left side and the left side turns off about 1 hour after the right side.

[advntrsekrs]

mick77- any reason your MH lights come on/go off one hour apart?And did you build your moonlight strip? That sounds like something I need to add to my lighting setup.

[sincityreefer]

I also have a moolight system that consists of 6 1 1/2" ABS endcaps with 2 blue and 2 UV LED's per endcap. 6 of them placed around my 120 looks awsome, the whole thing was DIY and cost around 30 bucks. (including a few messed up/miss drilled endcaps/ and a couple of LED legs snapped off). Let me know if you would like some more detailed plans, and i can draw you up a little circuit diagram, or give you a few pointers, ive set up a few of these now, and i just happen to be an electrical engineer. I powerd my setup with an old 12V 1amp transformer i found in my junk drawer with all my old cell phone chargers and computer speak powersupplies. If you want to keep it cheep (around 30$) look around for an old/unuesd transformer. we can make it work with almost any voltage, but a 12V was ideal for my 4 LED per endcap design. But thats the cool thing about LED lighting sooo many options.... check out http://www.lsdiodes.com/5mm/
for prices, they seem to be the best i could find., i got the 4000mcd blue and the Ultra Violet. HTH, ill post a pic of the inside of my canopy with my moonlighting system tomorrow.

[advntrsekrs]

Sincityreefer- I am not good with DIY so I would need a very detailed drawing and step by step. But I also have a 120 so your setup would fit right in I'm looking forward to your photo of the moonlight system.

[mick77]

advntrsekrs, I turn my halides on an hour apart from each other in an half assed attempt to create the sunrise and setting. I built my moonlights in a day and it only cost me about $20. It's not the prettiest set up, but very efficient.

[Dingo]

I run my MH for 8 hours, and have no supplemental lighting. Anything longer than 8 hours and things start closing up.

I have 250W on 10 gallons, though, so my corals are a bit squinty eyed.

[sincityreefer]

advntrsekrs, its not as hard of a DIY project as you might think. might be a good one to start with. Have you ever worked with LED's or electronics before? even if you havent its not too complicated... posting pic soon.

[sincityreefer]

ok heres the pic. This is the left side of my canopy. you can see two of the "pods" in this picture, there are 6 total. all built exactally the same way. i love my moonlight system, looks awsome! let me know if you want to give it a go.. HTH

[sincityreefer]

wow, that came out alittle larger than i thought. lol