Does off-peak par matter?

[Reefer Dan]

I’ve been making some change to my lighting due to some lights going out, etc and borrowed a par meter to make sure I didn’t burn everything…..I may have gone overkill on my lighting because I’m getting this par with t5 and LEDs at 15%.

I have a mixed reef, but with these lights it’s looking like I may have to go SPS dominant so it can create some shadows for LPS.

My schedule is as follows:

5% intensity start at 9AM
Ramp up to 15%intensity by 12 PM
15% intensity + t5 12-6:30 PM
Ramp back down to 0% at 9 PM

Questions:
1) Does the par matter on ramp up and ramp down times as long as peak is hitting these levels?

2) if par does matter for ramp up and ramp down, should I increase led intensity during those times but drop it during peak back to 15%?

 

[Reefer Dan]

I often see par ranges and peak par recommendations (4-8 hours), etc. but I don’t really see anyone mention about off-peak par.

 

[Waters]

As long as your peak par is lit for a sufficient amount of time, your off par levels don't really mean anything. That ramp up and down period is mainly for our eyes.....although I am sure the fish appreciate not being startled by the lights turning on. Although, prior to LEDs, that is how all tanks were ran.

 

[Reefer Dan]

As long as your peak par is lit for a sufficient amount of time, your off par levels don't really mean anything. That ramp up and down period is mainly for our eyes.....although I am sure the fish appreciate not being startled by the lights turning on. Although, prior to LEDs, that is how all tanks were ran.

Valid point, I forgot about that. Ok cool, so I should be good then with this par for 6.5 hours then.