400 gallon project

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Dropping to 6 hours a day though is ... well, I don't know. I've seen those suggestions before too, but to me the problem is .. I'll never see my tank during the daytime hours then, except for maybe on weekends. It's not really something that appeals to me, don't know how others feel on the subject though, maybe I'm alone on this

Short of throwing the daytime cycle so far off the regular daytime at least .. I guess that's an option but then the problem is sunlight from the windows will interfere with your "daytime."

Maybe just enough white lights to give aesthetic appeal but not the most intense for the actual photosynthesis.

When I lived in Florida, I knew many people who run their tanks at night because of heat in the day. They would have lights on around 5-6pm and off in the middle of the night.

For me, I have my lights on at 3pm to 9pm. There certainly is a decent amount of light from windows on the tank before 3pm and it allows me to view the fish nicely.

I work from home though, so 6 hours is more than enough time for me to view the tank. My fiance enjoys the tank too and usually gets home around 6, so she also gets a good 3 hours of lights on.

Certainly not for everyone. Just thought it was worth mentioning since bulb life is also an issue.

Just in case anyone wants to read:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1582958

And the TOTM that convinced me to try a shorter photoperiod. He talks about how too much light causes coral growth to slow and color to fade.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2009-01/totm/index.php