Daylight savings was several weeks ago (on March 7th). In the spirit of daylight savings, I wrote the Daylight Savings Challenge for Saltwater Aquarium Hobbyists post. In the challenge, I let you know that I was going to reduce the amount of time I run my aquarium lights and was challenging you to do the same; to conserve and to see if it makes any difference in the growth of the corals in our tanks.
Before the Daylight Savings Challenge, I was sunburning my corals for 14 hours a day. But when I issued the challenge to you, I reduced my own light-cycle by 30 minutes.
You’re not going to believe what I found
Hint: there is more information below
(sorry that was a cheap stunt to get you to keep reading…guilty, as charged)
Here it is:
Did you catch that? I’ll post it again:
It was nothing. Nothing happened. My corals didn’t brown-out, die-out, explode, implode, combust, congeal, wither, bleach, necrose (is that a word?), or do anything else. They just kept growing.
Now, saving 30 minutes of electricity every day isn’t going to pay for my girls to go to college, but in the process of saving a few shekels, some carbon emissions, and the do-gooder feeling of being environmentally responsible, I also feel like I did the inhabitants of my aquarium a small (30 minute) favor. I suspect that the animals in my tank need a lot less than 14 hours of blazing imitation sun to do what they need to do–and a few weeks into the challenge, that appears to be the case.
How about you–did you accept the Daylight Savings Challenge for Saltwater Aquarium Hobbyists? How is your tank?
If you haven’t tried it yet–do you know how many hours of light your tank really needs? If you haven’t tested it–why don’t you give it a shot.
To see how much money you can save, check out this calculator (spreadsheet) on Google Drive. It’s free.
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