Reef nutrition

Refugium light cycle

Chromis

Supporting Member
What is your refugium light cycle?

I've been running mine counter-cycle to my DT, 7pm to 8am, on a hypothesis that it will keep pH from dropping overnight due to CO2 build up. But now I'm thinking it should also run during the day to outcompete DT nuisance algae for nutrients.

How many hours a day can you light up chaeto without killing it?


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I have mine controlled by my pH. It comes on and goes off according to the pH of the tank. When I looked at the logs of when my pH went up and down it wasn't consistent so instead of picking a time schedule I chose to have it controlled by the pH itself. Some days it's on 8 hours and some 14 hours.
 
I have mine controlled by my pH. It comes on and goes off according to the pH of the tank. When I looked at the logs of when my pH went up and down it wasn't consistent so instead of picking a time schedule I chose to have it controlled by the pH itself. Some days it's on 8 hours and some 14 hours.
That's interesting. So you're prioritizing pH stability over maximizing nutrient removal. Hadn't thought of doing it that way.


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@Flagg37 then you've proven that the refugium lights (plant oxygen production) can be used to help regulate pH? Cool. So when do your lights end up turning on most of the time for those 8-14 hrs - mostly at night or sporadically?


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@Flagg37 then you've proven that the refugium lights (plant oxygen production) can be used to help regulate pH? Cool. So when do your lights end up turning on most of the time for those 8-14 hrs - mostly at night or sporadically?


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I don't know if I would say that I've proven it. I was going to test it at some point and not run it for several days at all and see what it does.

This has really just been an experiment for me and I haven't done it long enough to be able to recommend it yet. The scheduled lighting cycle is still the tried and true method.

When I look over my log for the last week my pH is between 7.95 and 8.19 (that's a .24 swing) with an average of 8.09. My sump light is programmed to come on when the pH dips below 8.07 and turns off when it rises above 8.14. Again, in the last week there were days when it was only on for 5 hours and a couple days it was on for 19 hours. In total it was on for 52.9% of the week but it's always off mid day when the pH peaks and always on at some point over the night. Here's what my apex graph looks like.
IMG_4302.PNG
 
So I look at the graph .... and it makes little sense.
The first 3 bars look like lights had a direct and noticeable effect.
PH drops, light goes on, PH rises immediately.
But I look at the last 4, and there seems to be no effect at all.
PH drops, light goes on, PH keeps dropping.
Weird.:confused:
 
I think the normal swing still happens. My hypothesis is that the fuge light just lessens the low. I've still got to test this by not running it for a few days and note any changes.
 
It balances it out, but it doesn't really affect pH from what I can surmise from the Apex graph as well. Since you have an Apex, you can program the lights to do both - turn on during certain hours as well as when pH drops below a certain point.
 
BRS investigates just released their chaeto fuge test phase 1 video. In it they also introduced phase 2 which deals more with the pH. It should be interesting.
 
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