Factor ambient light into photoperiod?

677 Views 3 Replies 3 Participants Last post by pauld738, Aug 25, 2021

mossman77

Discussion Starter · Aug 25, 2021

I have lots of windows and skylights in my house and am curious if I should be factoring the ambient light into my photo period. My light currently comes on at 9am and ramps up to about 80% brightness (as currently programmed) by 10am and begins ramping down at 5pm, blue light by 6pm through 12am, then off until 9am. Here is the light level in my home at 8am:

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Mark Fisher

· #2 · Aug 25, 2021

Your tank does not appear to have any algae issues, so no worries there.

It's more of an issue for your fish than your plants. They need sleep, just like we do. I'd reduce the blue light to shut off around 8 or 9 pm, instead of midnight.

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mossman77

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 25, 2021

I am getting some brown algae on the AR and older leaves of the bonsai, but nothing too significant.

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pauld738

· #4 · Aug 25, 2021

Totally agree that if algae isn't an issue no worries.

I have some pretty good ambient light going on myself.

Older photo of tank around 10am (I don't normally take photos without my light on)

More recent photo of tank around 3pm

Here's my light schedule, not that I'm suggesting you follow it.

Lights come on at 3pm. Ramp to 100% by 5pm. 100% till 8pm then ramp down to 0 by 10pm

During winter months when tank doesn't receive direct sunlight I add another hour of 100% light to setup. I originally had 6 hours total artificial light but as the tank has matured I have bumped that up a bit.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk[/IMG]

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