esacjack Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 So I know this is a crazy idea... but has anyone ever tried alternating lighting schedules for MH and LED? I.e. MH comes on in the mornings when its cooler in the house, and LED's come on later in the evening? I was thinking of this schedule for my frag tank. Gear is 1 75watt MH 20k and 1 kessil a150w 1 custom supplemental fixture (UV, Blue, RB, Red, Cyan, Yellow) 7:00AM - Sunrise LED array ramps up to 10% (yellow,red,cyan,uv) 7:30AM - MH Turns on and begins warming (full warmup takes just over an hour) 8:30AM - MH full operating temperature / LEDS ramp down 12:00PM - Kessil turns on 2:00PM - MH Turns off 5:30PM RB/UV/Cyan/Blue turn on to 40% 6:00PM Kessil off 6:45PM Red and yellow ramp up to 60% Cyan ramps down to 0% 7:00PM Red, blue, and yellow ramp down to 0% 7:45PM UV ramps down to 0 and RB down to 20% for moonlighting. The end goal of course is to utilize my small MH fixture, its spectrum capabilities (and proven growth), but also take advantage of running the kessil to save money on the electric bill. My cousin is supposed to bring his PAR meter down to Austin when he comes to visit. We plan on scoping everything out then so that I dont cook all of my corals in the process I'd also given thought to eliminating the sunrise/sunset factor, and just having the MH come on for 3 hours in the morning, and 3 hours in the evening, with the kessil covering the remaining 5 hour window..... Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted April 21, 2013 Share Posted April 21, 2013 The pro's use MH for their SPS, LED for everything else, so maybe you line up your coral such that the MH is over the SPS predominately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esacjack Posted April 22, 2013 Author Share Posted April 22, 2013 not a bad idea.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 I don't know why it wouldn't work, but it's pretty complicated for my taste. I definitely prefer a simpler schedule, even though this would be more appropriate based on ambient temperature. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brooks Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 I agree with Victoly and jestep. I'll be adding LEDs to supplement the MH on my system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted April 22, 2013 Share Posted April 22, 2013 I have 2 Kessil led and a 150wat mh. I run Kessil only from 10am to 11 then Kessil and mh from 11 till 4 then back down to Kessil till 7. Seems to work well with heat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esacjack Posted April 23, 2013 Author Share Posted April 23, 2013 Yeah thats kind of what I was thinking. This room I'm in is my office/studio and gets plenty hot with gear. The MH gives off CRAZY amounts of heat in comparison to my kessil. Did you get the 350w? or the 150ws? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 I have 2 of the a350w an a 20k mh bulb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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