Lighting question - Reproducing a cloudy day

B

butchseaman

[I am new to the hobby so I have a lighting question. I built me a canopy and while making some changes to the top I could not use the MH lights so I used my older 4ft fluorescent Coralife 10,00K and Antic lights. The tank had a look that reminded me of a cloudy day. Still plenty of light but maybe not as intense.

Since the idea as I have understood is to “mimic nature” why would you not have some lighting that represented this cloudy day effect once or twice a month? Would this aide in the over all health of the reef, or, is a cloudy day scenario just not wanted and cannot be avoided in the real world? My moonlight mimics the waning and waxing of the moon cycles.

Just a thought…..]
 
[Cloudy days are not "needed" but I have read where some people will leave their halides off like one day a week to mimic a cloudy day. I have seen nothing to suggest it helps or hurts one way or the other. You definitly don't want to do it more then once a week as your corals need that intense lighting!

Most tropical places have over 300 days of sunshine a year so to me it is a nonissue.

The waxing and waning of the moon cycles is different. There is evidence that corals use this as part of the environmental cue to reproduce! Now I have not seen anything to suggest corals are actually healthier with a realistic moon cycle but it will greatly increase the odds that they will "do it".]
 
[Keith...
That makes sense and I kind of thought it might be something along that line. Thanks for the explanation.

I have been thinking about asking this question for a couple of days and thought it was really probably a dumb question. But hey, I have been asking dumb questions for a long time and could not think of a good reason to stop at this point... :eyebrows:]
 
[Tank lighting compared to the sun is almost like a cloudy day everyday. :smart:]



Edited By blide on 1109222552
 
[Bill to a large extent unfortunatly that is true!!!

By the way that is not a dumb question at all! In fact I would consider that much more of an "advanced" then a "beginner" question!]



Edited By kwl1763 on 1109222995
 
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