Is it worth trying to simulate natural sunlight intensity?

[BrettDS]

So in setting up my Radion LED's a few months ago it occurred to me that given the lights are dimable that I could try to ramp up, then ramp down the lights throughout the whole day in an effort to try to more closely simulate natural sunlight.

As I was working on it, I came across this graph from a solar power website showing how much power you could generate from the sun throughout the day:

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/01/dca6ccdc854f47a99598a941021aefc2.jpg

I figured that probably translated fairly well to light intensity and this is what I came up for my lights:

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/11/01/ab882295050f82550cd55cc388e85ad9.jpg

I've been running the lights like this for a month or two now and I don't seem to have any problems. It's a reasonably new tank, so I can't really compare this to a more typical photo cycle, but I'm just wondering what you guys do for your lights and if you think it's beneficial to try to do the long ramp up/ramp down to more closely simulate natural light.

[theMatrix]

I ramp up almost identical to that chart. But i ramp down quicker and by 8 the blues come on and by 10 the lights go out till 6am where blues come back on at 2% up to 5%by 8am and 10am the daytime with low blues. At 45%.

Basically i rather keep my photon period on when im around. Not when im at work.

[bundybear1981]

I use the same bell curve for my lighting, I used the chart on the reef breeders website to set intensities at times.

[laga77]

Me too. I use a similar curve to ramp up and down over a 13 hour period. Both ReefBreeders units max out at 100% for 3 hours from noon to three. It has been that way for over 2 years. I have great color and growth.

[lukas]

Do you set, same time duration to blue and white leds?

[new_world_disor]

I dont have these lights, but i have a wifi controllable led unit. I have it set to come in around 8am very low and up in increments till 5:30-6:30pm where it's at its strongest then drops off till 10pm when it goes to 1% uv and 1% blue's. Corals and fish seem very happy.

[Sk8r]

Radion Pro. I'm using the Radiant program, which starts blue at 7:30 AM and goes up to bright and down to violets by 7 PM. Turns up all sorts of colors in fish.