How long do you run your sump/fuge lighting and why

[Dkuhlmann]

I ask this question to see what others do and why. I run my sump lights 24/7 for the last two months and the growth in my chaeto is outrageous :beer: I haven't taken the time to see how the resident pod population is doing in the sump, can the non stop lighting hurt the production of pods?

My chaeto has completely filled the section that I have it in (1st section) I put it there to stop using filter socks as I don't like how they catch everything including pods. My chaeto really loves the water flow it gets from the return lines with full flow and my tank clears up very quickly when I do my bimonthly maintenance.

I swapped about half of my chaeto a week ago with a local buddy for some frags and my chaeto has more than doubled in size and is larger than when he took his half of it. I may have to start selling this stuff to support my habit :beer:

So lets have your thoughts on how you run your sump/fuge lighting and why!

I'd like to say that I started off by running sump lighting opposite the DT but had a lot less growth than I do now. The only reason that I started leaving it on 24/7 is I had surgery mid June on my lumbar spine and all I did was feed my fish with the exception of my buddy coming over to do my bimonthly wc's.

 

[nuxx]

We run ours from 6am until 1am.

Everything looks good

 

[96slowbra]

i run my fuge reverse to my display, with an hour overlap. fuge lights come on an hour before my main lights go out, and stay on an hour after they come back on. I have a 40 gallon fuge, so I do this to contribute to stable ph. not sure if it really makes it happen, but I have a decent sized fuge relative to my total system. In a smaller fuge in a sump it probably doesn't make a big enough impact.

 

[tmz]

About 16 hours on opposite photo period to provide CO2 uptake and oxygen production when the other photosynthesis stops No strong reason for the 8 hours off ,other than a period of darkness/twilight seems natural and I have plenty of corals to pick up photosyntetic activity during the normal daylight cycle.

 

[karimwassef]

Almost always on with a 3hr dark period.

Noon-9am SUMP (21 hours)
9am-midnight DT (15 hours)

So

9am-noon (just DT) 3hrs
Noon-midnight (both on) 12hrs
Midnight-9am (just sump) 9hrs

I don't run my skimmer continuously though.
I turn it off between midnight and 6am.