john,
regarding the natural state, you are replicating it..
a common misconception to new comers is that your tank should be lit while the suns up.. makes sense right? the sun comes up, the lights should go on...
well the one thing that missed here is that it doesn't matter the "real" time of day, you just have to regulate the time in your tank.
for example, in my tank my lights don't start to come on till 11:00 AM the
MHs don't come on till 2:00
PM... the last of the lights shut off at midnight...
so to my tank, 11:00 am is day break for the tank... and midnight is sunset for the tank... its the consistency that counts not the actual time
now to relate that to your
fuge, its the same thing. since it s separate tank, its independent. for the
fuge day break would start at 11:00
PM and sunset would be at 10:00 AM the next morning... how it relates to the tank, or the real sun for that matter doesn't matter... as long as it gets a consistent photo cycle as dave outlined...
hope that makes sense, sorry for the ramble..
