Radion Schedules - What Variables Do You Take Into Consideration?

[Tradewinds]

Ecotech has given us an immense number of variables to use with these lights. When creating your Radion schedules/graphs which variables do you take into consideration?

Hours of daylight?
Sun transit?
Twilight?
Moon's visible disk illuminated?
Moon transit?
Others? (Please help me think outside the box)

Does any one use different schedules/graphs for different seasons of the year? Does anyone throw in a rainy season? (Makes me wonder if the vortech's speed up during a thunderstorm.)

[taphil]

Only variable I used is my personal schedule, to maximize the time the lights are on when I'm at home. So the lights don't really ramp up til 11:30am and start dimming at 11pm.

[Tradewinds]

Only variable I used is my personal schedule, to maximize the time the lights are on when I'm at home. So the lights don't really ramp up til 11:30am and start dimming at 11pm. I agree that's a great place to start, but what other factors determined the spectrums, intensities, and peak sunlight hours that you used?

[taphil]

For me I set the schedule for my own enjoyment of coral colors. It may not be optimal for coral growth, but neither is an aquarium compared to the ocean.

Ramps up to peak output (60% if I remember) 12K at noon, then every 3 hours it changes to 14K and 18K, then 20K for an hour before going to all blues (30%) for an hour and then ramping down to moonlight. I like the 14-18K appearance the most, so it runs that in the late afternoon to early evening when I get home. It goes all blue around the time I'm ending my day and getting ready for bed, so I can appreciate the corals that fluoresce.

[hkmhrns]

Well,

How deep your tank is? 24"
What type of coral/fish/inverts you have? LPS,Leathers,Softies/YE Tang,flame hawk,six line,clown/anemone,snails,hermits,brittle star
What temperature you'd like to stay around? 78 degrees
What's your personal schedule like? work during the day, party at night- I adjust light schedule to where I can see my pretty tank
What's your water flow like? Great- I have 2xmp40s, WXM changes the pumps to several different modes throughout the day
Etc..



I'm still trying to hit the sweet spot with my 2 radions over my 72 bowfront. At first I was hesitant to go over 60% power with both radions (plus the fact that there were soo many post warning people not to go full out with them power wise, or you risk the chance of killing your corals- I decided to take it slow), but some of my coral have either shrank up a little, or browned out a bit, so I'm going back to my PC (PC 4x98 watt bulbs- 2 10k and 2 50/50) schedule and taking it from there. I used to have the 50/50s come on an hour earlier than my 10ks- have my 10ks run for 10 hours, and then have my 50/50s run an hour past my 10ks, so 12 hours total (and 4 low powered moon light LEDs on all night). Keep in mind, I had no control of the watts my lights were putting out, it was on, or it was off. Now that I have the radions, and I have the power to control the % they're putting out- which can be fun to customize, but I have to remind myself that any change I make can potentially hurt my tank. To keep this post from getting too long, basically- you have to know what has worked for you in the past and change these lights accordingly to be similar to your previous setup. You can always adjust a little from there, but if somethings not busted- why fix it? FYI my tank is around 24" deep and I'm pretty sure now that I need almost 100% (probably 90%, or so) to give my coral what they want- LIGHT!!!

What works for my setup may not work for yours, but I do hope this helps someone.

Cheers



PS

As always, when changing anything with your setup- do it in little bits. So, even though I was ramping up and running 70% 14K for no more than 3 hours a day and (20K and royal blues on either end), and now I want to run that 10 hour 90%- I'm not going to change that quickly. I'll start off with 70% and make that 3 hour window a 5 hour window- till I get to 10 hours at 14K 70% (Check how my corals are responding the whole time of course). Once that 10 hour window is in effect and my corals aren't showing negative signs- I'll slowly increase 5% a week and see what my tank likes. Just wanted to make sure you knew I was going to change over gradually.. Nothing in this hobby comes quick, or should be drastically changed in a short time frame... : )