I??m wondering what the effects would be if the Hid cycled on and off and left the Led,s on throughout the 12 hr cycle. A little heat management?..but then who knows, I??ll know more as things get going whether I have a heat problem or not.

Now that's interesting. The most effective application may be counter-intuitive, though.

Kicking yer HID on "mid-day" creates a thermal profile familiar to us: most intense light and heat at mid-day.

But the plants may like to start and end their day with the enhanced red /IR your HID may provide, a radiation wavelength profile that they're familiar with. That'd be interesting to play with, especially from a "martian nights" perspective.

Let??s imagine an ebb & flow??The nutes aren??t there all the time. Ley??s say that the plant is fed three times a day, takes what it needs.....and survives quite nicely until next feeding comes around. Possibly the same could be true for lighting. The 12/12 cycle isn??t broken because the Led??s are still active(possibly a ½ full can of albacore tipping the ufo a little to the inside) Maybe the sun just went behind a tree??I dunno, possibly the portion supplied by the Hid wouldn??t be missed for short periods?.stored, and then replaced when available.

Weezard then figured out to also reduce red at this point to control.....well, I don't know what he's figured out yet. I'm such a heathen it would never have occurred to me to hit the plants with less than full power at at least one spectrum. But during early flower, individual red and blue control (sometimes not running "full power") lets you really manipulate things like stretch (and rate (and location!) of floral development).
You and WeeZard are diddling with lighting combinations all the time?..the possibilities are staggering.
Maybe useful for heat management??..and then maybe the missing link?..and then we??ll all be bazillionaires together??.I could live with retiring on the big island.
In any case, it??s only a thought?.if I can keep my imagination in check I might ultimately have some success.

So much for today,
Horsemanrests