Circadian rhythm

[nymxracer]

Does everyone set the light cycles to match the natural habitats? I see a ton of info on the importance of adaquate lighting but nothing on light cycle schedules. Unfortunatley i get cluster headaches(aka suicide headaches) and after experiencing that pain i was concerned about the well being of my anenomes and their biological clock. My lights are set at 12noon daylight to 10pm nighttime E.S.T. and wasnt sure if i was hurting them by doing so. I know if i was an anenome and got one of those headaches that powerhead would be a viable alternative to the amount of pain i would be in . Can anyone chime in on this for me? Thanks in advance.

 

[cranberry]

To match their natural habitat one would have to have a biotope. Most of our tanks contain critters from every ocean and every sea. It would be impossible to match them all even if you knew exactly where each came from.

 

[ophiura]

The short answer to this is that the light cycle is not natural and you can modify it somewhat...or a lot...depending on your investment.
At a minimum you can look to getting lights with separate switches for actinic and white lights, as well as moonlight. The actinics will come on before the white and go off after. This recreates a critical time on a reef called the twilight changeover. I recommend this if possible.
More expensive systems actually attempt to simulate the sun moving across the sky. There is no doubt that our tanks experience a less than natural light intensity, as the sun does not exist directly overhead at a 90degree angle in the sky for all that long no matter where you are. In addition, though we have surface aggitation, it is not like the wave action you may see on a reef, which adds to the physics of reflection/refraction.
But in most cases the animals are probably ok, or you would see it in aspects of their growth or failure thereof.
You can try to simulate on a very basic level some aspects of natural lighting cycles and I do encourage it...but it is not what necessarily spells success overall.