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ATJ- Perhaps you could help me with what occurs in this situation.
The lights shut off for the night. I get home 3-4hrs later on work nights. I often click on the black light array ONLY to observe and poke around for a few minutes before I get to bed. No other lights on in the room. The clams, most SPS, most LPS, zoa, etc go from "night mode" into "day mode", and it doesn't take anymore time for everything to open back up than when the main actnics+BLB+10k's come on in the morning.
A good friend with many years of coral study told me that the coral uses its fluorescence to cause the Stokes shift for the purpose of reflecting useable light off the skeleton back through the tissue for the purpose of useful photofeeding.
Back in optic physics in college, I remember doing some labs where we measured the quanity of UV energy per m^2 on the sidewalk in front of the lab on a semi-sunny day. It was a staggering amount of light energy, I think it was around the 7w/m^2 range if my memory is correct. The UV is also able to reach the corals while the sun is lower on the horizion, and become less attenuated by the water it passes through. This makes it the first and last light energy to reach the coral everyday. If the fluorescence enables the coral to take advantage of this early and late light, it could be an advantage in photo-competitive reef situations as we often see in stony coral reefs.
I'm not a biologist, nor do I have any conclusive proof of anything beyond by own observations. I don't have any tools to measure if photofeeding is occuring under the 370-380nm light, but I do have eyes that LOVE to see all the blues fluoresce which are impossible to flouresce with actincs.
I use them for my viewing pleasure. After years of improved viewing pleasure and no signs of problems, I don't think I would ever light a tank without sticking a BLB tube or 2 in the hood.
Just my non-expert, non-scientific $0.02
Best Wishes,
-Luke
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