Lighting Schedule ?

[Paul and Roxanne Mitchell]

We have "inherited" a 110 gal reef aquarium from our daughter and son-in-law after a job change required relocation on their part.

Everything is going well except I've lost the timer settings on the controller (9 volt battery backup dead) for the lights and I will not be able to get in touch with them for approx. two more weeks. Aquarium is 48 X 18 X 30. There are 2-250 watt metal halide lights, 2-96 watt power compacts and 3 "moon lights" (?). Each can be individually turned on/off but I need a schedule. Tank has fish, coral (soft and stony), invert. 'critters, anemones etc.

Completely new and completely ignorant on this new hobby of ours. Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

TIA

Paul & Roxanne Mitchell

[Wayne Sallee]

It would be best to keep it at the schedule it was on
before, but a workable schedule would be to have the metal
halides lights run for 11 hours. Have the compacts turn on
30 minutes before the metal halides, and turn off 30
minutes after the metal halides.

The moon lights are probably led's, so they don't use much
electricity, so it's simple to just leave them on 24/7.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Paul and Roxanne Mitchell wrote on 10/29/2005 10:12 PM:
> We have "inherited" a 110 gal reef aquarium from our daughter and
> son-in-law after a job change required relocation on their part.
>
> Everything is going well except I've lost the timer settings on the
> controller (9 volt battery backup dead) for the lights and I will not be
> able to get in touch with them for approx. two more weeks. Aquarium is
> 48 X 18 X 30. There are 2-250 watt metal halide lights, 2-96 watt power
> compacts and 3 "moon lights" (?). Each can be individually turned on/off
> but I need a schedule. Tank has fish, coral (soft and stony), invert.
> 'critters, anemones etc.
>
> Completely new and completely ignorant on this new hobby of ours. Any
> help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
>
> TIA
>
> Paul & Roxanne Mitchell
> >

[Paul and Roxanne Mitchell]

"Wayne Sallee" > wrote in message
...
> It would be best to keep it at the schedule it was on
> before,

Yeah, that's part of our problem. Without being able to get with my kids for
a week or two I don't know what schedule he had them on. He came and set
everything up and reset the controller clock and scheduled the lights. When
the power went off for ~10 minutes the other day that's when I realized 9V
was dead and lost my schedule.

>but a workable schedule would be to have the metal
> halides lights run for 11 hours. Have the compacts turn on
> 30 minutes before the metal halides, and turn off 30
> minutes after the metal halides.

Will do. Thank you

>The moon lights are probably led's, so they don't use much
> electricity, so it's simple to just leave them on 24/7.

That's exactly what they are.What are those for anyway?

>
> Wayne Sallee
> Wayne's Pets
>
>
>
> Paul and Roxanne Mitchell wrote on 10/29/2005 10:12 PM:
> > We have "inherited" a 110 gal reef aquarium from our daughter and
> > son-in-law after a job change required relocation on their part.
> >
> > Everything is going well except I've lost the timer settings on the
> > controller (9 volt battery backup dead) for the lights and I will not be
> > able to get in touch with them for approx. two more weeks. Aquarium is
> > 48 X 18 X 30. There are 2-250 watt metal halide lights, 2-96 watt power
> > compacts and 3 "moon lights" (?). Each can be individually turned on/off
> > but I need a schedule. Tank has fish, coral (soft and stony), invert.
> > 'critters, anemones etc.
> >
> > Completely new and completely ignorant on this new hobby of ours. Any
> > help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
> >
> > TIA
> >
> > Paul & Roxanne Mitchell
> > >

[George Patterson]

Paul and Roxanne Mitchell wrote:

> That's exactly what they are.What are those for anyway?

They imitate the effect of the moon shining through the water at night.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

[Wayne Sallee]

They are a night light, imitating the moon light giving
you just enoupgh light so that you can see what's going on
at night.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Paul and Roxanne Mitchell wrote on 10/30/2005 4:42 AM:

>
> That's exactly what they are.What are those for anyway?
>
>

[TekCat]

So, moon lights on 24/7 schedule is ok? Any ill effects on leaving them on
at all times?

[Wayne Sallee]

Yea, you will get unusualy high tides in your reef tank :-)

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



TekCat wrote on 10/31/2005 2:48 PM:
> So, moon lights on 24/7 schedule is ok? Any ill effects on leaving them on
> at all times?
>
>

[George Patterson]

TekCat wrote:

> So, moon lights on 24/7 schedule is ok?

Yep. I have mine on a cycler that cuts the intensity down during dark moon
periods, but I think it was probably a waste of money.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

[Marc Levenson]

Dana Riddle did some research on this, and talked about a display tank
he saw in some store or home that used LEDs 24/7. Each coral at
opposite ends of the tank where bleached in the exact spot where the LED
hit it, while the rest of the coral was healthy. It would be wiser
to put these on a timer as well, or flip them on when desired.

Marc


TekCat wrote:
> So, moon lights on 24/7 schedule is ok? Any ill effects on leaving them on
> at all times?
>
>

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

[Wayne Sallee]

That makes no sence. I'd like to see the article.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne's Pets



Marc Levenson wrote on 11/2/2005 5:03 AM:
> Dana Riddle did some research on this, and talked about a display tank
> he saw in some store or home that used LEDs 24/7. Each coral at
> opposite ends of the tank where bleached in the exact spot where the LED
> hit it, while the rest of the coral was healthy. It would be wiser to
> put these on a timer as well, or flip them on when desired.
>
> Marc
>
>
> TekCat wrote:
>
>> So, moon lights on 24/7 schedule is ok? Any ill effects on leaving
>> them on at all times?
>>
>>
>

[Pszemol]

Maybe he is talking about this one:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2003/feature.htm

"Wayne Sallee" > wrote in message ...
> That makes no sence. I'd like to see the article.
>
> Wayne Sallee
> Wayne's Pets
>
>
>
> Marc Levenson wrote on 11/2/2005 5:03 AM:
>> Dana Riddle did some research on this, and talked about a display tank
>> he saw in some store or home that used LEDs 24/7. Each coral at
>> opposite ends of the tank where bleached in the exact spot where the LED
>> hit it, while the rest of the coral was healthy. It would be wiser to
>> put these on a timer as well, or flip them on when desired.
>>
>> Marc
>>
>>
>> TekCat wrote:
>>
>>> So, moon lights on 24/7 schedule is ok? Any ill effects on leaving
>>> them on at all times?
>>>
>>>
>>

[Marc Levenson]

His presentation didn't dwell on this point, but he did take the time to
explain that the photo-synthetic algae wasn't getting any rest time at
all with the LED shining on that specific spot around the clock. It
made sense to me.

Marc


Wayne Sallee wrote:
> That makes no sence. I'd like to see the article.
>
> Wayne Sallee
> Wayne's Pets
>
>
>
> Marc Levenson wrote on 11/2/2005 5:03 AM:
>
>> Dana Riddle did some research on this, and talked about a display tank
>> he saw in some store or home that used LEDs 24/7. Each coral at
>> opposite ends of the tank where bleached in the exact spot where the
>> LED hit it, while the rest of the coral was healthy. It would be
>> wiser to put these on a timer as well, or flip them on when desired.
>>
>> Marc
>>
>>
>> TekCat wrote:
>>
>>> So, moon lights on 24/7 schedule is ok? Any ill effects on leaving
>>> them on at all times?
>>>
>>>
>>

--
Personal Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com/oanda/index.html
Business Page: http://www.sparklingfloorservice.com
Marine Hobbyist: http://www.melevsreef.com

[George Patterson]

Pszemol wrote:
> Maybe he is talking about this one:
> http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2003/feature.htm

If so, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with moonlights. Seems to be an
experiment to find out what happens when coral is exposed to only one spectrum
of light.

George Patterson
Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you quarrel with your neighbor.
It makes you shoot at your landlord. And it makes you miss him.

[Pszemol]

"George Patterson" > wrote in message news:X4raf.4151$1u3.199@trndny05...
> Pszemol wrote:
>> Maybe he is talking about this one:
>> http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2003/feature.htm
>
> If so, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with moonlights. Seems to be an
> experiment to find out what happens when coral is exposed to only one spectrum
> of light.

I said "maybe" - I don't know what Marc was remembering reading :-)
For me, it is very hard to imagine "a spot" under a moonlight...
The distance from the LED to the coral is large enough for light
to be spread over quite a large area of the coral... And the light
volume is not even comparable to the experiment where the LED
was installed less then an inch from the coral tissue, underwater.
In my personal opinion moonlight has no way to do any harm, it is
too weak and to much spread over a large area to make an impact.

Also, the photosyntesis does not need time to "rest" or it stops
completely... In algae cultures they recomend setting the lights
over the longest period possible - if you do not have lights on clock
you could run them 24/7 with same results then if you run them 20h.
It is just not economical to run lights longer than you need them to,
so if posible I would get them on the timer...