How long do you sps keepers keep MH on?

[MrKite24]

Mine are on for 7.5 hours a day. I don't have any PC/VHO actinics so I run 20k all day.

 

[sobes94]

10 hours T5 actinics, 8 hours MH, then LED moonlights for a couple of hours

 

[rbredding]

Actinics 7am to 9pm

MH (2X250w @20K) 10am to 1pm then 5pm to 8pm

 

[ganjero]

MH is fine but the actinics i would shorten to 8am-8pm. but it looks fine. I used to run my MH for 6 hours a day. do you have 250 or 400 because I had 400's

How is this shorter?:spin1:

Mine are on for 5hrs with a 1hr difference between the two. One is on from 2 to 7 and the other is on from 3 to 8. So the corals get 6hrs of MH light with 1hr of low light.

 

[harlequin tusk]

has anyone had luck with some montis using only VHO lighting?

 

[offroadodge]

VHO SA on at 12:00--8 T5s on at 12:30--2 400wMH on at 1:00---->>9:00 MH off--9:30 8 T5s off--10:00 VHOs off...Trying to simulate sunrise and sunset. All the lights are on from 1pm to 9pm basically with a 30 minute delay at the beginning to give everything time to get adjusted W/O FLASHING them with the FLAME throwers. I have had my light schedule this away for a year now and seems to do good...

 

[Ralph ATL]

10 hours 2, 400 watt Radiums. no sup except the daylight.

 

[doorlady]

we have vho's and have montis growing well, we have a rainbow, sunset and superman. they are real close to the top. actinics run 7 1/2 hours and whites run 6 hours

We also have a tank that has mh and t-5 and have a mind trick that is so cool looking. mh run 5 hours.

 

[Reefer577]

10 hours with our 400w 20K Radiums. All the sps love these bulbs. Thank god we got rid of the trash ReefLux bulbs that were burning the heck out of everything.

 

[PowermanKW]

Originally I had 2x150w over my 90g then upgraded to 2x250w. I read stuff concerned with photoinhibition and ran a 6 hours cycle with 12hr suplementation.

I don't have it handy but recently read another article talking about how our lights can't come close to replicating natural light. I got some Monties with good color, but they browned out. I kept thinking it was too much light.... anyway, I increased my light to 9 hours. Everything colored up well. Monties look great. Everything looks happy. Everything has new growth. I have yet to find out what "too much" light is, but have found my tank was underlit.

 

[hanaumabay]

I like to have mine on for 8 hrs so I can enjoy the various viewing times.

 

[gatorrx98]

250w 20k Radiums 6.5 hours here

 

[tnyr5]

10.5 hours here. I say start at 6 hours and then creep it up slowly until you have the colors you want. ( within reason)

 

[Mattik]

250W 14K Phoenix MH - 8 hrs
2X65 PC 1 Actinic / 1 50/50 - 12 hours

seeing good growth and color on my SPS

 

[coral_killer37]

these are some very interesting lighting schedules submitted by the various reefers, but is there a standard rule of time for lighting a sps tank?

 

[MrGone]

Actinics (2x48"VHO) 4pm-12:30am
MH (3x250w) 5pm-12am

metal halide setup:
(3) Lumatek 250w bulbs
(2) Lumenarc Mini Wide with ReefLux 250w 20k SE
(1) Batwing reflector with an ebay 250w 20k SE

 

[MrGone]

these are some very interesting lighting schedules submitted by the various reefers, but is there a standard rule of time for lighting a sps tank?

You just kind of have to play with it and figure out what works best for you.

I would run my lights longer but I found 7" is right at the limit of my underpowered chiller.

I run my lights at night because I tend to stay up late and don't get home from work until 5ish. If I have friends over on the weekend then I'll turn the MH on earlier. They don't seem to mind.

 

[geldof]

7.5 hours Hamilton 20K's, 12 Actinics

 

[elijaher]

9 hours supplement lights and 7.5 hours MH 14k phoenix lights.

 

[tmantaylor18]

5 hours with no supplemental lighting.

+1