Defaulted an appointment with Dr. Stanley Leong today, cos I was feeling too lazy. Fell asleep right after sending wei to school!

Anyway, was browsing around just now, and saw this amazing 12-page argument over photoperiods in reef tanks. From previous studies done, apparently most corals reach a saturation point where their zooxanthellae no longer utilise light to make food. (To fill in those who aren't familiar - corals are animals. Autotrophic corals, the ones most-often kept, possess algae/dinoflagellates in their tissues called zooxanthellae that harvest light energy for food, much like what real plants do).

Now apparently some people have reported deeper colouration in their corals after cutting back on their photoperiod. There are some very conflicting arguments for this. The old-school teaching was, "more is better". Certain zooxanthellae are colourful, and corals produce more of them in brighter light to protect themselves, much like why we end up with a tan. Now, people are saying that more light causes BROWN zooxanthellae to proliferate, making the corals brown. I'm confused.

However, if the current hypothesis is proven by Sanjay or some other reef lighting guru, then it would mean high cost savings for reefers. Imagine - running "maintenance" flourescent lighting for 12 hours of the day, with a 2-4hour 250W/400W metal halide "spike" in the middle of the day to keep the corals happy and yet more colourful.

Which means, I have a prospective new lighting schedule coming up!

Current schedule
4pm-11pm 2 x 150W 20,000Kelvins halides
Electricity cost = $10.42

Prospective new schedule
1pm-1am 4 x 54W 10,000K T5 flourescents
1pm-1am 2 x 36W true actinic T8 flourescents
6pm-10pm 2 x 250W 10,000Kelvins halides
Electricity cost = $27.06


Compare this with a theoretical lighting period of also 12 hours using "old-school" teachings:
1pm-1am 2 x 54W actinic T5 flourescents
2pm-12pm 2 x 250W 10,000Kelvins halides
Electricity cost = $31.23

OK, granted, the savings is only $4 a month. That's one new mushroom coral each month! Hmm. Why the hell am I wasting time reading nonsense like this? And wasting time typing ridiculous blog entries like this? Hah.