Timing your lights for simulated sunlight movement

[Hammer]

I have yet to get any MH lighting for my 80 gallon setup. And I am trying to plan ahead for any and everything including clams and SPS.
I was thinking about this setup.
||175||250||250||175|| acrost the top To be numbered #1,#2,#3,#4.
I would have the pair of 250's mounted perpindicular to the tank, and the 175's would be pendant style on both ends. And maybe add VHO supplementing for both color and beggining dawn/dusk.

If the average tropical day gets 14 hours sun, I would try to duplicate this as well.
Start by bringing on the VHO's for about 15 to 25 minutes before bringing on #1 on one end. It would stay that way until the 3 hour when #2 will turn on. #1 will remain on until the 5th hour, at which time #3 will come on. #2 will stay on until the 9th hour, where #4 will come on. #3 will stay on until the 11th hour. And then it will only be #4 until just shy of the 14th hour and the last 15 to 25 minutes of VHO's.

I feel this would accomplish a few things. First to give the corals, and fish, a much better imatation of the movement of the sun. I have even thought about tilting the two 175 pendants at angles for better simulation. I also feel that the pendant style should give a more diffused approach to sunrise and sunset, while having the spider style reflectors for the 250 watts for the intense midday sun.

It would also seem that a higher CCT (maybe around 12k) for the pendants would simulate that the light travels through more water at the angle of the sun at sunrise. And the 250 watters would be 6500k bulbs for a more intense midday.
The VHO's would be for dawn dusk, and just the general appereance of the tank with 500 watts of 6500k bulbs.

I see a few down sides to this. First, number of lights/timers/wiring/heat. Also maybe that there will not be enough light at all times for some clams/SPS. And last, that the time that I will be getting to see the tank till usually be sunrise and sunset. But then again, I would use this setup for the tank's inhabitants, not for me. (After all, who is more important! )

So, has anyone done a setup similiar to this? If so, how did it work out? What would you have done differently? What size tanks was this over?
And is it worth all the trouble?

Thanks
Hammer

 

[Hammer]

Anyone?

 

[myreef]

I am doing something similar on my 150 except I only have 2 MH's. I have my PC actinics come on at 9:30 then the left side halide comes on at 10:30. The right side halide comes on at 12:30. The left halide goes off at 5 then the right at 7, then finally the actinics at 8.

I did it to start with because of heat. It was actually less heat to do it this way. Since they were not on all at the same time for a great period of time. I am going to add a 3rd halide in the middle of the tank for mid-afternoon sun. It will be on from 2-5:30 or so. That way the midday sun will be the most intense. I really like the shadows it creates when only one halide is on.

I also have moonlights on the tank. Since I use the Aquacontroller it simulates the rise and fall of the moon based on the lunar cycle.

Do I think it is worth it? Yes, I do. It is anice feature and looks cool too!

 

[Hammer]

I like the pictures that you have on your site showing the differences.
And yeah, it looks like you could use a little more light, especially for the purple gorgonian. How long have you had that one? And what have you been feeding? And how much current is it in?

Anyone else tried this approach?

 

[myreef]

Actually those pictures do not do justice on the amount of light, but I still agree I want another MH so I can keep anything anywhere. Most of my SPS are middle up in my tank. The purple gorgonian was beautiful. It died a slow miserable death. I fed it DT's but it slowly withered away. When the polyps were out it was stunning. I am pushing about 5000 GPH through my tank now. I have two Iwaki's for the main returns and a MAG 12 and a MAG 18 on closed loops for more movement. I do not have any powerheads at all.

I think you will find, that it is a more natural way to keep the lighting. Good luck!

 

[Len]

Just realize that doing all this is more for human fancy then for the benefit of your corals. As long as there's light, the corals are content.

On a similiar note, I never understood why anyone one should want their corals to sexually reproduce in their tanks ( induced via seasonal temp changes and variable moonlighting). No spawn will survive (unless your tank is sterile), and broodcasting is a very energy-consuming activity. It's like telling someone to have a baby, knowing full well that the babies isn't going to be delivered successfully. Big waste of energy IMO. Not to mention the havoc some broodcasts play on the tank's chemical parameters (sperm, in particular, has wrecked some of my organisms).

I'd rather have my corals grow.

 

[MattM]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Leonard:
<STRONG>Just realize that doing all this is more for human fancy then for the benefit of your corals.</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm not too sure about that. I would think there would be some benefit from the SPS being lit from a variety of angles throughout the day, rather than constantly having the upper surface lit and the lower surface in shadow.

 

[Len]

Matt,

If you had all the lights going, you'd have all the angles being hit. When you turn on all the lights, all of the light doesn't suddenly vector only straight down.

 

[Modo]

From the way I see it. You're not really lighting the corals from different angles. The angle of light is not going to change just because another light on the other side of the tank is off or on.

I think it would be kinda cool to watch, but I really couldn't see any benefit other than possibley unified growth across the corals.

 

[Modo]

Haha, Leonard you beat me to the punch.

 

[Hammer]

I was actually thinking about angling the pendants on each end to give the angled light effect.

How well will that work. I don't rightly know.

And wouldn't change be better then total saturation of light all at once?

 

[Hammer]

And besides, reflected light does not have the same intensity as direct light.

 

[Len]

I don't want to be misunderstood: staggering the on/off time of the bulbs has merits. It's a marginally effective intensity ramp for the tank. The bulb's inherent start-up time, IME, is more then sufficient to "cue" corals and fishes (not that they even need it).

Point is: (and I apologize for being so terse about it in my original post) corals don't care what direction the light source is travelling from, as long as they receive PAR. Mimicking the east-to-west natural pattern is going to do nothing for your corals.

To answer your initial question, it's my opinion that if it's hard to setup, it's not worth the trouble.

 

[Hammer]

No offense taken.
So how do you think this light pattern would effect the growth patterns of the coral, if at all? Would it help make them grow outward more instead of just straight up?

[ July 19, 2001: Message edited by: Hammer ]

 

[Len]

I'm unclear about the phrase "light pattern." But given that light is equally distributed over your tank over the 4 bulbs, coral growth should be "normal" (ie not skewed towards any one particular direction), with perhaps a propensity towards the center of the tanks (where the 250 watters reside). Staggering the on/off operation will have no effect on morphology.

Tall growth vs wide growth is more dependent on light intensity IME. Corals that are given more light will grow more symmetrical (height vs. width), while corals given less light tend to flatten out in an attempt to capture more PAR. Of course, the dominant contributing factor to morphology is genetics.