12+ hour photo period on Christmas day???

[ckusnierek]

So I will have guests basically all day on Christmas day. Of course I want to show off my tanks. I run 7 hours on the SPS tank w/ 2x250w MH and 9 hours on the softie tank with 130w PC. Will running them for 12 hours or so (10:00am to 10:00 pm) for one day cause any problems?

[ScruffyRubicon]

Shouldn't cause any problems. If you are concerned about doing it all at once, you could add a hour of lighting every day or two between now and then until you get up to 12 hours.

[crvz]

Nah, I'd just run it 12 hours without ramping it up. I don't think there's much to worry about.

[whatevva]

I do that every once in a while....you'll be fine

[Elegance Coral]

Originally Posted by ScruffyRubicon

Shouldn't cause any problems. If you are concerned about doing it all at once, you could add a hour of lighting every day or two between now and then until you get up to 12 hours.

I agree. Extended photo periods above what a coral has adapted to can cause bleaching. If you decide to extend the photo period all at once, keep an eye on the temp. If you can keep the temp a few degrees below what is normal for your tank it will reduce the odds of bleaching.

[VWD]

I agree, The corals will be fine

[DarthOcellaris]

i vote for ramping it up. Never hurts to be safe than sorry

[ScruffyRubicon]

Originally Posted by Elegance Coral

I agree. Extended photo periods above what a coral has adapted to can cause bleaching. If you decide to extend the photo period all at once, keep an eye on the temp. If you can keep the temp a few degrees below what is normal for your tank it will reduce the odds of bleaching.

Not so sure it is the extended photo period (not just a couple hours anyway) but more the heat. If you have a chiller or a way to keep the temp where you normally keep it, you will be fine, ramping up the cycle or not.

[Fly Guy]

being as I dont have actinics or supplemental lighting there have been times when I have been working on my tank and needed to see and left them on for 16+ hours in a day.(11 is normal)

To be sure....im definitely not advocating it or saying it is a good thing.......but once in a while, its no big deal IME and everything will be unaffected.......and I am speaking about a loaded sps system of course

[Elegance Coral]

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...ghts+on+24%2F7

Just a little something that explains what happens within a coral when exposed to extended light cycles. I believe Greenbean explains it well.

[Fly Guy]

keeping them on 24-7 every day(or even one day), and extending the photoperiod by a few hours once in a blue moon are very different topics of comversation though.

there is no doubt that photoinhibition is a bad thing

Im a big fan of maxing out the lgihting limits for each individual system as it is, and you cant find out what this threshhold is unless you slowly push it until it is too much....then taper it back to the most it can take and still be beneficial instead of detrimental

[Elegance Coral]

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

keeping them on 24-7 every day(or even one day), and extending the photoperiod by a few hours once in a blue moon are very different topics of comversation though. Agreed. The reason for posting the link was to show what occurs inside a coral when the photoperiod is extended. During photosynthesis O2 levels climb within the corals tissues. Normally the lights go out before this O2 reaches damaging levels. All photosynthetic corals regulate the population of zooxanthellae to match the PAR and photoperiod they are exposed to. In an abnormally long photoperiod the zooxanthellae can produce enough O2 to become dangerous or deadly.

there is no doubt that photoinhibition is a bad thing

Im a big fan of maxing out the lgihting limits for each individual system as it is, I do the same thing. and you cant find out what this threshhold is unless you slowly push it until it is too much....then taper it back to the most it can take and still be beneficial instead of detrimental The reason that we have to do it this way is because we do not know where this max light limit is for any given system until we put it through this test. In ckusnierek's case, we have not put his system through this test. We have no way of knowing what his system can handle. Is it possible that extending the photoperiod on his system 5 hours could cause problems? Yes. However we have no way of knowing for sure. Just because you or I have extended the photoperiod on our system without problem does not mean that ckusnierek will be as fortunate.
I do not have timers on my wife's system. Those poor critters don't know how long the photoperiod will be from day to day, but everyone is healthy. The system that houses my Indonesian Elegance corals is on timers. If I extend the photoperiod on this system by one hour the corals will begin to react negatively. If I were to extend it by 5 hours I would have casualties.

[wyliecoyote]

i run a 16 hour photo period. my actinics come on at 6:30 in the morning, mh comes on at 7:45 goes off around 11 and comes back at about 1:30 goes back off at 5 on again at 6:30 off again at 9:45. actinincs shut down about 10:30. i think i'm pushing it a little. i think the average reef gets around 14 hrs a day. again, i need to check the bourneman book again to see if that is right. i think my periods of no mh similate rain showers (that's just my opinion) my soft corals and clams all show great growth and i get mixed results from the stonies. i think that is more due to my battle with low dkh. i'm fixing that and expect improved growth from everything. i think 12 hours will be fine.

[holyscoly]

u should be fine i turned on my mh at noon the other day (due to one of my friends wich is the one person who i really try to imprese evrytime he sees my tank due to he has had extremly gorgeous tanks and is the one person who pushes me the most to get more and more knowledeble about what i do with my system) and they usually come on at 4 and tured of at 11 pm and every thing was fine the photoperiod that day with actinics was about 12 hours.