how long is good for lighting

[chillaxr6]

ive recently been reading more and more on these RC forums and still have so much to learn . . . I recently have been assessing my lighting and have come to the point where i need some help in working out the best length of time for my tank. My tank now is 4 months old and everything seems to be doing well but ive been curious to some things in my tank. Ive only been running my lights ( 260w VHOs ) for 7hrs to keep the temperature down and things are growing but should i change this??? Ive got a handle on the temperature problem now with replacing a powerhead that wasnt working properly. Ive got some corallimorphs and some softies that hitched in and some purple polyps. Should i increase the amount of time i have the lights running to maybe 10 or 12 hours??? Only reason i was running a 7hr period was the heat but i seem to have that problem licked . . . installed a powersupply and am running pc fans

 

[kamil5000]

Coral reefs lie around the Equator and therefore recieve a lot of light, which we cannot creat in our aquariums. This is why it is necessary to extend our lighting regime (for aquariums that contain corals and any other light depending organizims) to at least 10 hrs.

Also, after 9 to 12 months you will need to change your light bulbs as the spectrum will shift to the red zone, which will only benefit micro algae.

 

[pro99line]

I was running my lights for 12 hours a day and started to have an algae problem so I cut back to 10, well that didn't help either. I cut back to 8 hours and wow, the algae started to go away and also my corals started looking much better, extending more, and growing like crazy. 8 hours should be fine IME.