Light Cycle

Here's my plan for my lighting cycle.

Here are the lights I'm working with.
119w 14k LED - Main LEDs - Evolution LED
24w All Blue Strip Lighting - Accent LEDs - 24 LED Strip Light
4 LED JBJ Nano-Glo - Fuge LEDs - JBJ Nano-Glo
2 to 5 LED Moonlight - I haven't picked out exactly what I'm buying here yet. Here are a few I'm considering:
2 LED Unit
3 LED unit
5 LED Unit

Here's the timer I picked up to control it all.
Dual Analog Controller
They don't sell these in the fish section. They're actually in the reptile section. They will allow me to have 1 timer with 2 outlets that has a reverse photo period built into it with 2 more outlets . Then there is another timer that controls 3 other outlets without effecting the other two. Finally, 1 more outlet that's just always on.

So here's what I was thinking:
Main LEDs on the primary timer with the Fuge LEDs and the Moonlights set on reverse cycle.
Accent lights on their own timer.

Midnight - Moonlights and Fuge on overnight
9AM - Accent Lights on (moonlight and fuge light would still be on)
11AM - Main LEDs on - Accent Lights off (moonlight and fuge light off)
2PM - Accent Lights on (with Main LEDs)
5PM - Accent Lights off
9PM - Main LEDs off - Accent Lights on (moonlight and fuge light on)
11PM - Accent Light off (Moonlight and fuge light on overnight)

Alright veterans, what would you change to my lighting plan?

man u going all out!@! im running 2 evolutions my blue leds turn on at 9am and then at 11am both blue and white and at 8 my white shut off and the blues stay on till 10.... i tried doing all the variations and didnt notice any changes...my monti cap is growing like crazy and my sps is starting to branch..

I'm trying to create a little bit of a sunrise/sunset kind of thing. What I'm reading suggests that your fish are more likely to spawn. My wife would just go crazy if we can get our fish to spawn and anything I can do to make her love my fish tank is a huge plus! :-D

I can't really turn my blues on alone right now. My fish still fight each other when just blues are on. I guess they seriously don't recognize each other. I've been trying to get them used to it a little... pulling in a lamp to put by the tank and turning the whites off so they still have enough white light to recognize each other. It works... with the lamp beside the tank on they don't fight. Hopefully over a few days or weeks I can move the lamp a little further away until they recognize each other when only blues are on.

I leave my moonlights on all the time now. My PC actinics are on 8am-10pm and my 150w MH are on from 9-9. Lots of people say it's overkill but my sps are fine and I'm getting better growth than with a shorter photoperiod. I've read all this stuff about shorter photoperiods to improve growth but I never saw it. I looked up the sunrise/sunset for some of the areas where there are some nice coral reefs and most of them are 12 hours. If you look at the astronomical twilight times it is about 14 hours. There's no way my lights are putting out more juice than the sun.
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=108&month=8&year=2011&obj=sun&afl=-13&day=1

That's actually almost exactly my current setup. Accents on two hours, mains on ten, accents on another 2, so 14 total hours. But... 4 of those hours is just 26 watts or something.

I have my T5's on from 10 to 10 and my 1st MH comes on at 12 to 6 and the 2nd MH is 2 to 8. About to hook the moon light LEDs back up.

I run the lighting on the refugium at night to off set the heat from all the other light runnng during the day and heating the tank to much.

Ritter, you hit on a point that most people tend to forget about. What is life like in the ocean? Lot's of light for long periods of time. And, the flow of water is not as aggressive as some tanks I have seen. I would be afraid to scuba dive in some tanks with all the flow they have.

My light cycle is as follows:
T5's - 10:00am - 10:00pm
250 MH's - 1:00pm - 8:00pm
Moonlights 24 hrs/day
Sump light 24 hrs/day

I've gone back and forth on this. I only have 150 watt lights so should I run my lights longer than someone with 250s? No one seems to know so it's all an experiment to me.

My head hurts so i run mine 24-7 jk

The PAR value is what you should be concerned with. It looks like a 150W MH will maintain a good PAR value (300-800 par) up to 18" of water depth. Of course, if your tank is deeper than 18" you simply need to raise your corals, that have higher light needs, to a higher position in the tank.

The photo period should be as close to reality as possible to keep your corals healthy. You need 12 hours of light that simulates reality.
- Sunrise (t5's)
- Afternoon intense light (MH's) 5 hours is the recommended length
- Sunset (t5's)

Anything less and you may not provide enough photosynthesis for the corals symbiotic zooxanthellae and too much may actually be detrimental to coral growth and long term health. In either case, an incorrect photo period is evidenced in the fact that the coral exhibits an unnatural color or grows slower than normal.

In short, you should not run your 150's to make up the difference. Just make sure your SPS corals are within the Good PAR range, which is less than 18" from the surface of the water as far as I can tell. However, I would not worry about it if your current lighting period is working. Don't try to fix what is not broken they always say......

Another point... Everyday is not sunny in the tropics so it is ok to leave your lights off at least one day per week. That does cut down on the hours run and increase the life expectancy of the bulbs.

That has been my problem. It's hard to find info on par for 150 watt bulbs. I can't even find which nice colored bulb has the best par. I ran Phoenix 14000k for a year and they did good but the color was too blue for me. I'm running Ushio 14k right now and the color is too yellow. I'm thinking about trying the Radium 20k next but I've read conflicting info about them. Some say the Radium has less par and some say the Radium has more par than the Phoenix or Ushio. I really have no idea.

I like the Phoenix bulbs myself. The problem with the different brands is that you can never tell, until you install them, if they are as advertised. Some 10,000k bulbs can be blue. Typically, 10,000k is on the yellow end and 20,000k is on the blue end of the spectrum. What we are trying to do is emulate the color at which the corals actually grow in the ocean. At the surface of the water the color is very bright and yellow. The deeper you go the more blue the water is. What we want is the best if both worlds. We want light from the growth spectrum which us normally 6,500-10,000k and the spectrum that makes the color stand out in our corals which is the 14,000-20,000k range. Most people try to get both ends of the spectrum, yellow and blue, and that is why many people will run T5's to supplement their 10,000-12,000k MH bulbs.

The difference in the bulbs and our quest to get both spectrums is what makes bulb selection so difficult.

Just beware, a 20,000k bulb may turn out to be extremely blue. I would get on some of the other forums to see if anyone is using the Radiums.

A 20,000k bulb may not be enough to drop the PAR rating too much but it will definately slow your growth. On the other hand, a 10,000k bulb will make corals grow like weeds. That is why most frag tanks run the 10,000-12,000k bulbs.

Well...after all this talk I just went and ordered some Radium bulbs. After doing a lot of reading the 150w Radium run on HQI ballasts is actually brighter and lighter than the Phoenix. There were some claims of higher par out of the Radiums also. I don't think the Radium 150 is as blue as the 250 version and the par for the 150's claim to be higher than the other 14k bulbs but maybe not as much as a 10k. 10k, 14k, 20k, none of them from brand to brand are even close to the same. My phoenix 14k look more like 20k and my Ushio 14k look more like 10k to me. Ballast plays a big part in the bulb color also. My phoenix bulbs were a lot bluer than the ones Jason was running on his tank. The Radiums need the proper ballast to fire correctly which I have. I hope I have found my bulb!

I will be anxious to see how the Radiums do. I bought AquaMaxx bulbs the last time and they were junk. Of course, when you pay that much for them you want to get your money out of them. So, I just dealt with it until one if them finally burned out. After only 6 months of use!

I posted these a while back in the other forum but look at the difference in Phoenix and Ushio bulbs, both 14000k.
Phoenix


Ushio

Wow you're right. Those are way different. Oddly enough I prefer the 10k look. I've always thought I liked the blue look much better. I believe you're right though. Ushio looks more 10k and Phoenix look 20k. Glad I never have to worry about buying bulbs and all that!

That is insane.... I think they got your bulbs mixed up. Surely that bulb is not that messed up!

Sure said Ushio 14k on the box. Phoenix only make one color bulb. I think ballast plays a big part in the color. Different bulbs are made to fire on different ballasts. I have heard the Radium 20k is really blue if you use an electronic or pulse start ballast but on a M81 ballast it is a nice white.

My old 75G Reef....

AquaMaxx 14,000K on the left and a South Pacific Sunlight 10,000k on the right. These two bulbs were completely different.

WOW WHAT A DIFFERENCE

I remember you posting that in the other forum. It's interesting that two lamps marked exactly the same can have that much difference to them. I was talking to a guy this evening that's really into hydroponics and we were talking specifically about T5 fixtures and he was telling me the problem that they are having in their hobby is that the lamps and the ballasts haven't kept in step in advancements. The problem they are having is that certain bulbs will only work with certain ballasts etc. so perhaps you're onto something with the earlier comment.

hydroponics ehhh??? we need to talk lol

Here's an observation I had while I shortened my photo period. I look at my tank morning and night so it's hard for me to notice day to day growth unless I compare older pictures. When I had my MH photo period at 6 hours my alkalinity usage dropped drastically. I did notice that the white growth ring on my monti cap was turning orange also. I bumped up the time on the MH to 8 hours and there was no change. I had stopped dosing for alkalinity altogether, there was none being used. After about 2 weeks I bumped the MH up to 10 hours and within 2 days I noticed new growth on most of the sps and my alkalinity usage was up again. I also did some reading on successful 150 halide tanks and came up with this,

http://www.ultimatereef.com/TOTM/2008_august/

I also found on the Zeovit forum that he runs his HQI for 11 hours. I can't argue with that! I think 5-6 hours for 150 watters just isn't enough, for my tank anyway.