I think I found the Problem.....

[REEFY1]

Ok, I increased my lighting from 6hrs a day to 8.5 and im seeing a difference in corals-Tort is turning brighter purple, Could 6 hrs a day not be enough, they are 250 SE 12,000 reeflux on a Icecap ballast-

[beeker]

i normally try to have atleast a 8-9 hour photo period with my metal halide

[twon8]

i run my halides for 11 hours a day

[humbugy]

when I used ushio 12k's, i ran em 10 hrs a day, worked great, xm and saki 14k i backed down to 8 hrs a day.

[reefkoi]

This is a very interesting topic, are there any studies out there of photoperiod versus intensity? How much sunlight does a shallow reef coral in the ocean get per day???
Chris

[teen]

could be the PAR on those reeflux.

im running my 250w 14k phoenix between 11 and 12 hrs a day.

[Purple Haze]

^Agree. Reeflux's don't have much PAR.

[fishieness]

and then also when you have an old bulb and replace it with a new one is going to increase the PAR, especialy if the old bulb hadnt been replaced in a while.
while photoperiod would give the zooxanthellae more time to create the sugars needed (which is always a plus), intensity still is very very important as it is able to actualy reach the corals so they are able to create even more food. as in photoperiod can only do so much...

[boggs32]

great topic. I'm actually interested to hear more thoughts on this.

[j.prostrata]

I run my 400's only 5 hrs a day. Suppliment t5 ,vho 12 hrs a day.

[Mikigo]

400w hqi with radium for 6 hrs a day. May need more hours with 250s?

[REEFY1]

it just seems like since i went from 6hrs a day to 8.5 things are looking alot better- ORA Blue tort for sure - they are 12K reeflux SE -Things that make you HMMMMM

[ReefJunkieOK]

I just bumped mine up from 8 to 10 hours per day with good results so far.