lighting questio

[seanbugeja]

hi all....my tank is in the last phase of its cycle...i have never left the lights on....2 weeks ago i put my live rock in...should i be leaving lights on? if yes for how long?

once i will be getting fish do i also need to leave lights on? or considering i wont be keeping any corals can i only turn it on when admiring the fish.

thanks for you help everyone

 

[TimeConsumer]

I would leave them on about 8 hours a day. The lights help the fish maintain a diurnal cycle. Lights will also encourage the growth of coralline on your rocks.

 

[cloak]

How big is your tank? What kind of lights do you have? Being that the tank is new I would only run them for about 3 or 4 hours a day. Once you add your first coral maybe bump it up another hour or so. When you have multiple corals in the tank a photoperiod of about 6-8 hours would probably suffice. GL.

 

[seanbugeja]

thank all..my tank is 130l and i have t5 lighting fixtures installed....thanks a lot

 

[cymen]

I'm with the shorter light cycle. I had mine going for 9 hours/day and it only helped the algae. Maybe it's good to have it grow to extract potassium/nutrients from water but seems easier to have shorter light cycle and do water changes to remove potassium/nutrients (and not have to deal with as much algae).

 

[seanbugeja]

thanks cymen...i havent been doing any water changes as i think that i will be removing a lot of nitrite and the bacteria which eats it wont reach its full population...at least thats what i read lol....still have 0.1 nitrite wont stock before its 0