Reduced Light Plan

Have decided to reduce light on a regular schedule, based on various posts on subject here.

day 1 - 250w 10K MH off
day 2 - 10K vho off
day 3 - actinics off
day 4 - actinics on
day 5 - 10K on
day 6 - MH on

will do in conjuction with regular water changes which I do every 10 days (25 gal.) - now just have to decide on whether to implement reduced light period before, during, after (?) water exchange.

Any thoughts?

 

So will you rotate the light schedule continuosly since it's a 6 day schedule and you do water changes every 10 days?

 

I'm not sure what you are looking to do on this by having some lights on for multiple days at a time. I would be worried about how your livestock will react and how some coral will survive. I could see some bleaching from exposed light over many days and then the coral that feeds at night not expanding for multiple days based on that schedule as well. It just is not the natural environment. Another thing to think about is how will the ballasts react when some of them are running for 3 days straight. This could cause some heat issues in the tank as well.
Sorry not trying to sound like a jerk or anything. Just some thinks to think about.
For reduced lighting I would have the actinics go on late am, then vho around noon, MH lets say 2pm. Then MH off at 8, VHO at 9, actinics 10.
Or any variation.
As far as waterchanges I do not believe it matters when you do them but I prefer to do mine in the am when most of my coral is in hiding and not feeding so that I do not damage any of them from the small changes in PH and temp.

If there is a benefit in doing the multi day schedule I would love to read up on it because I have not heard anything.
Sorry for the rambiling. Trying to get out of work

Thanks

 

Omard, IMO I think that kind of set-up would be more detrimental than good. I think you would be stressing out your corals/clams by employing something like that
I think I know what you are trying to do...varying the light intensity like replicating a cloudy day? However, I don't think that will be advantageous...I could be wrong though!
The lighting duration per day I think would be something to experiment with as a better scheme. JTREEF hinted on a good idea also!
Remember it is about PSR(photosynthetically stored radiation) which is the actual amount of light that is harvested and converted to chemical energy, through the process of photosynthesis brought on by a corals zooxanthellae. All coral are different and you need to find the fine line between too much or too little light and the irradiance associated with the lighting. Bleaching, or fading/subdued coloration of the corals tissue could be the end result-but there are other variables that must be adhered to such as temperature, pH, alkalinity, calcium, salinity, amount of DOM etc.
I guess you could try it and see what happens and if you start to notice some adverse reactions, then you know that isn't going to be beneficial to your corals and will have to change your lighting scheme!!!
Is everything doing well thus far????? If so, why are you changing the lighting? The old saying..."if it isn't broke...don't fix it" comes in to play here if things are fine at the present time!
Let us know how you make out!