Thoughts on "split" photoperiod?

[Armando]

I'm really struggling to have the temp down this early in the season. not even summer!

So I changed the photoperiod to be 9am - 4pm, since the apt gets hot(hotter) around 4-6:30pm. It helped but temp still reaching 83.

I can't shift the photoperiod to 6:00pm - 1:00am, too late at night to have lights on.

So i'm thinking about having a photoperiod split into 8:30am - 1:00pm and 5:30pm - 8:00pm. I wonder how the corals/fish would react to this. Anyone has tried it before?

 

[NateHanson]

Would you leave actinics, or a subset of the MH on during the afternoon siesta? I think that would help avoid total photoperiod confusion with your creatures. You're basically creating a 12 hour day otherwise, and I think you can agree that it would be a rather stressful change if your world suddenly started spinning twice as fast.

 

[Reef55]

I agree with Nate, and I had similiar temp problems as you over the last 4 days. Try a small fan on your sump hooked up to your aquacontroller. I just did for mine last night... what an amazing difference that makes!!

 

[denvig]

To vary the lighting intensity during the day should be OK but turning it off and then on just isn?t natural. IMO I don?t think it?s a good idea. I thought you had a chiller on your system. Can?t it keep up?

 

[mattn007]

How different would the proposed changing lighting conditions be than a sudden dark rain storm in the middle of every day? More specifically what is the variation in lighting intensity from clear sky to dark clouds?

I think leaving the lights on all day long at the same level is less natural than Armondo's proposal. It is more a question of how much the lighting level can vary without confusing/harming the livestock.

 

[Armando]

yes, maybe something in between would be ideal. A shorter gap between the two (or more) cycles. Perhaps I can do something like:

9:00a-12:00p , 2:00p-4:00p , 6:00p-8:00p

It would be like simulating clouds. I mean BIG clouds

I'll definitely put a fan like Reef55 suggested, just need to get them out of storage. They were quite useful last year. And this year as you said I can hookup to my aquacontroller, neat!