Is my lighting schedual off??

[Mr.Shrimps]

I have the reef breeders 32 black box and am running blues at 28 and whites at 7 for 11 hours a day. Is this too much?? I just saw a thread where someone was just running 8 hours a day.

Thanks in advance. :wave:

 

[heathlindner25]

100% blue and 40% white is what I use with the same fixture, so I think you can probably up it a little bit.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I have the reef breeders 32 black box and am running blues at 28 and whites at 7 for 11 hours a day. Is this too much?? I just saw a thread where someone was just running 8 hours a day.

7 to 11 hours a day isn't an issue. The zooxanthellae (algae) that lives in your coral and does the photosynthesis which helps feed your coral, only does photosynthesis for 4 or 5 to as long as 6 or 7 hours a day before it just shuts down even if there is still good light. The extra light is not an issue as long as there is an 8 hour rest period with little or no light.

On the other hand, your setting of 28% blue and 7% white is extremely low, even over a shallow tank. You have a 32" fixture, so how big (and especially how deep) is your tank? I have almost the same fixture over a 65g shallow reef tank that is only 14" deep. But because it's a 'work' tank, I hang the light 18" off the water (higher than most people hang their light). So I have room to work in the tank. I run my fixture at 75% blue and 25% white for 10 hours a day. But that is with a dim sunrise for a couple of hours and a dim sunset for several hours, leaving 5 or 6 hours that are bright enough for photosynthesis to take place.

Assuming your tank is 18" to 24" deep, I'd suggest you slowly raise your power levels over the next month to something more like 75% blue and 25% white. Those exact levels aren't important, but higher levels on both channels, especially the blue channel are.