how long do you run your lights on ur reef tank

[Glazner]

As the title states, curious how many hours people are running their lights on their reef tanks.

 

[Lytehouse]

about 8/9 hours including the time actinics only when they start and end.

 

[happysak]

2 hrs ( but my tank is special ) and 10 hrs on sps tank( 6 hrs main light )

 

[InsideJoke]

3 hours currently to help fight against cyano, but 6 hours normally.

 

[iamwrasseman]

8hrs total ,2 actinic then 4 14k and actinic followed by 2 actinic

 

[gws76]

Actinics are on for 11 hrs. Daylights are on for 7 hrs.

 

[Mylilreef]

i think it depends what kind of lights you have & what type of corals you are trying to keep. i have 4-48" VHOs over my tank. when i kept just LPS , leathers, and softies, i would run actinics 9 hours/day and daylights 8 hours/day. however, since now keep a couple of SPS, i do my actinics for 12 hours/day and daylights 11 hours/day. everithing does great with the current setus. still only get minimal growth from SPS but are still healthy and growing some.

on my first note though, when i finally retrofit with my T5s, i'm sure it will change again and will have to find that "sweet spot" again.

 

[Lytehouse]

i think it depends what kind of lights you have & what type of corals you are trying to keep. i have 4-48" VHOs over my tank. when i kept just LPS , leathers, and softies, i would run actinics 9 hours/day and daylights 8 hours/day. however, since now keep a couple of SPS, i do my actinics for 12 hours/day and daylights 11 hours/day. everithing does great with the current setus. still only get minimal growth from SPS but are still healthy and growing some.

on my first note though, when i finally retrofit with my T5s, i'm sure it will change again and will have to find that "sweet spot" again.

yep, you'll have to cut way back to break the corals in to the new T5's or just about everybody will shrink back and/or bleach out. Corals will love the T5's, they just need some time to adjust to them.

 

[Colin]

I run my halides for 11 hours on my 83G. The LED's on my BC14 run for 14 hours.

--C

 

[cody6766]

70w MH on my BC runs 10'ish hours, same for the actinics on my 40 breeder. The 4 daylight tubes on the breeder burn 8-9hrs. I used to run 12hrs of lighting and saw no difference cutting back some. I just have them come on later in the day to save some electrical cost (probably minimal, but hey, why not?) since i"m not home to see them. They go off sometime between the time we normally go to bed during the week and on the weekend.

 

[ghellin]

My royal blue LEDs run for an hour then the cool whites run for 6 hours then royal blues run an extra hour. So 8 for RB, and 6 for cool white.

 

[Glazner]

Interesting, Looks like the electric company likes me better...ha. I have been running two 400w MH over my mixed 280 for 12hrs and actinics come on 30 minutes before run the entire time and turn off 30 minutes after.... Sounds like I may be able to cut back. Do the actinics help anyting grow or are they more for color?

 

[reefyourself]

For me:
T5's 11am-6pm
MH 12pm-5pm

no ill results!

 

[kadence696]

mine is mixed a reef and i have 8 vhos 3 10k 3 454s and 2 super actinic, one set of four is on four 12 hours the other set is on for 10 hours

 

[Mylilreef]

i'm just guessing here, but is the 5-6 hour range about the normal photo period for MH? just curious if it takes about the same amount of electricity to run 440w of VHO for 12 hours as say 2 250w MH for 5-6 hour? would there be any benefit to halides other than th SPS being happier?

i'm definitly retro-fittin to T5 instead of my VHO, but still curious none the less.

 

[reefyourself]

im really not sure but... I used to run MH for around 9hrs... and dropped it by3 and they seem happier and have colored up even more. Could have to do with the corals photosynthesis... at a certain point it reaches saturation and cannot take in any more like soit really doesnt benefit to run them for so long

 

[cjilge]

6bulb t5 retro's total 13hrs
here is my light schedule

2 ATI aquablue + on 9:45am off 10:45pm
1 AtI pro color, and 1 aquablue + on 10:30am off 10:15pm
2 ATI aquabue special on 11:15am off 9:45pm

Hope that helps. I will be adding a few leds mainly for nite lightes runing 24/7 but we'll see how it changes things.

Chris

 

[Reef Happy]

Currently running
MH 7hrs 2PM-9PM
All Blue 48" LED's 1.5hrs Dusk and 1.5hrs Dawn

 

[blakers82]

I have run my T5 actinics at just "sunrise/sunset" but now I'm running them throughout the day at about 8.5 hours. My MHs are on about 6.5 hours. Cycle is from 3:30pm-12am.

 

[RubenG88]

Didnt wanna start a new thread so ill just post on this, just got my coralife lunar aqualight t5 4x31w and i was just wondering how long i keep what lights on