Light for corals

[NormanH]

Hello,

Got a question. Want to know if there's a difference between turning on the lights continuously for 10 hours and say 3 hours in the morning, 7 hours in the evening.

Thanks

Merry X'mas

[dodo]

usually...i dun do such thing it will only disorientate your corals

can u imagine sleeping halfway...then waken up by some unkown reason...then try to get back to sleep...it spoils your rest rite?

personally i dun do tat

[dodo]

since we are in tis topic on lites i was actually advise by one of the LFS to turn on the Actinic lite 1st for at least 30min...then we start turning on those white lite reasons being to prevent corals having "sudden lite shock"...

how true iccit? and how many of us as marine aquarist actually practice that

also advised to put actinic lite towards the front of the tank but no reason given y must put actinic lite towards the front

[mv3i]

hey bro ,

to my knowledge .... most of the reefers do that ..... is kinda to simulate the coral in the reef ... they get their light source from none to weak to strong and weak and none again .... like night .... dawn .... noon .... dusk .... night again ...

[dodo]

bro...i got wat u mean

but i still dun see the implication of night...dawn...noon...duck...night again

once we switch off the lite after 3hrs in the morning...there is total darkness then we turn on the lite again...until evening when we on it for another 7hrs

maybe...could you kindly pm me and explain to me more in details thks

[TanGo]

Hmmm liddat must refix my lights liao.. Didn't know that sudden light will shock my corals.. Maybe I'll throw in a dimmer switch.. hehehe

[Tanzy]

Sudden light shock is a joke. Corals are only affected by change in light during acclimatisation. The whole idea is unbased and has no scientific proof, just sounds kind of logical.

My MH comes on straight away, you can't dim MH and I don't have actinic, so that's 800W of MH served straight up and neat. The corals don't miss a beat and react as though nothing has happened. Clams will react by shrinking a bit but they do that everytime the light changes or when a shadow passes over them.

If you want to have the dawn/dusk effect then by all means go ahead but just know that the corals don't need it.

[TanGo]

Heng ar.. Thought have to invest more money.. Hehehe

[dodo]

tat's wat i am trying to imply...LFS always give the wrong and inaccurate info sometimes making us like a fool listening to them but b4 these site was launched...we have no one to refer to for advises or to verify certain things those LFS owners had told us

[Tanzy]

The dawn/dusk effect is more for fishes and helps with more panicky fish like Anthias. Prevents them from jumping out of the tank from shock.

[mv3i]

hey tanzy ,

does that mean that your MH's comes on together all at once ???? no other light sources ?? hmmm .......

interesting .... so most of us are wrong then !!!

<_<

but lots of guys in reef central does that .... ???

[Tanzy]

At the moment, no other light source apart from 2 MH unless you include kitchen light. Will be fitting actinics next week or so.

A lot of people do it. I might do it. It just looks good and maybe scare the fish less, but coral-wise, they don't need it. No harm doing it, it's just that if you can't be bothered to, it's ok.

[dodo]

so wat's the morale of the story?

1.no such thing as lite shock, rite?

2.actinic lite still a must, rite?

3.it's more benefit for fishes than corals?maybe can someone verify tis pt, i thk it's the other way around

4.doesn't need dawn...noon...dusk...nite effect iccit?

a bit confusing liao

[Tanzy]

Light shock happens, but not for corals that are already acclimatised to the system's lighting. Light shock will happen when a coral that is kept in a dark tank is suddenly introduced into a super bright tank.

Corals that are acclimatised are not affected by the sudden onset of light.

Actinic 03 is not a must. It depends on the spectrum of light that your tank is currently receiving. Super violet lamps like AB and Ushio/BLV don't need actinic supplementation because they have a lot of violet light. Some of my acro grew 1-1.5 cm in 3 months under Ushio without actinic. 10000K or Daylight FL or PL tubes will most likely require actinic supplementation. True actinic 03 also gives a nice fluorescent with some corals. Do not confuse with normal blue light. It also depends on the reefer's taste for how blue a tank should look, some prefer bluer tanks and use more actinic.

Most fish can take the lights coming on quite well. Actinic light might look dim to you, but to the fish who live in an environment that has predominantly blue light, it might not be that dim because they are more sensitive to blue light. Conversely, that's why fish and other marine organisms are not sensitive to red light because red light has been filtered off by the water.

It's is not absolutely necessary for dawn/dusk effect. No harm having one. No harm not having one.

[dodo]

roger liao so your MH actually consist violet/actinic lite

we users of FL/PL lite actually need to combine our 10,000K with actinic lite becos 10,000K lite lacks the actinic supplement

sometimes, you must understand, not everyone of us can afford to own a MH lite.

Firstly becos of the heat MH generate will need to incorporate the use of a chiller.

Secondly the cost factor also need to be taken into consideration(at least $2K for MH and a chiller)

Lastly, the house constraint. Be it lacks of space or sometimes our spouse odjection.

Sometimes, due to any of the reasons or a combination of the above, we can only utilised FL/PL lite. <_<

Anyway, I think we know exactly wat u mean already. Thks

[Tanzy]

I know. I started using FL to keep corals before PL was available. I only started using MH half a year ago and before that I was using VHO FL. FL still gives the best coral colouration of all the lights!

[dodo]

hmmm ...a point worth taking note

so given a choice....would u still go back to FL/PL or stick with MH(becos i might change to MH in the near future...jus wanna seek your opinion)

[Creetin]

hey tanzy, how did u get ur VHO FL? i dun see ani ard...or u brought it overseas?

[Tanzy]

dodo,

MH gives high intensity light that FL can never match. MH being a point source of light gives caustic lines (swimming pool/underwater glitter lines) that is not available when using FL. FL and PL are the brightest lighting per watt for aquarium use, but when there is limited space, MH gives you the most intensity for the least space.

Given a choice I will use both FL and MH together, which is what I intend to do soon. MH for the intensity to get the nice pigments out in corals and FL actinics to make the pigments fluoresce more and colours visible.

Other than problem with heat, rarely do people turn back to FL after using MH.

Creetin,

I got my VHO from US. Never seen any around locally. When I was shopping for lighting then, e-ballasts were not popular yet.

[mv3i]

hey tanzy ,

can post your tank pics to view ... really like to see SPS in action lah ... not forgetting an encouragement for beginners like myself ... something to look forward to !!!

[Tanzy]

Wrong pic, too big. Sorry.

[Tanzy]

This is the latest pic of my tank lit with two Radiums 20000K w/o actinic. I used to be using Ushio 10000K. You don't get much action from SPS except the colour and growth.

The tank is very empty because I can't get enough SPS to fill it. It's been 6 months since I did a major overhaul and 3 months since I first added SPS.

My 2 favortite pieces are in the centre, the tetracoloured acro on the left and hot pink stylophora on the right.

You guys should get robe to post a pic.

Tank pic

[Valleyman]

Tanzy,

Went to Nature on Christmas Eve and saw a 4ft casing with 2 PL tubes, one blue (Autinic) and one white. There is something in between the tubes. Is it e-ballast ? Also, if on both tubes, will one half of tank looks more bluish (from Autinic) while the other half is whitish ?

[Tanzy]

Valleyman,

I cannot tell. You will just have to ask them, some tar ballasts today are about the same size as e-ballasts. If you can pick up the ballast, then a heavier ballast usually is a tar ballast while the very light one is an electronic ballast. More often than not, you can find that the ballast casing itself has labels to tell you what kind of ballast it is.

If there is an actinic tube on the left and a 10000K tube on the right, than the colours won't blend very well. You might need to get a unit that holds 4 PL tubes, then stagger the tubes for a better mix.

[clowntrigger]

Valleyman, your tank will not look half white and half blue. I have that configuration in my tank, and it blend in real nice... BTW you should get the 4 PL tubes in the 4ft housing, that will give you more room for expansion in the future should you need more lights. Yep, the metal rectangular stuff is the e-ballast.