Lights On

[tanyamikephil]

Just wondered how long you guys leave the lights on in your tank? We were leaving ours on for 12hrs a day but were told that was to long.

 

[djbon]

I used to run my light 16 hours before. Now on 9 hours cycle and no changes on coral growth (more or less the same). I read somewhere that 4 hours full "sun" are more than adequate.

 

[NAClFiSHy]

mine are full blast maybe 6 but use dawn/dusk cycle with it.

 

[Ron Reefman]

The light you provide is to allow the zooxanthellae (algae) that lives inside your coral polyps the ability to do photosynthesis and grow which also feeds the coral itself. Most zooxanthellae needs an hour of bright light to get the process started, then photosynthesis will run for 4 to 6 hours. After that the process shuts down. That's due to millions of years of evolution where the reef only gets about 5 to 7 hours of BRIGHT light. Dawn, early morning, late afternoon and dusk are not bright enough due to the angle of the sun to the water surface.

However, you do no damage lighting your corals for 12 to 14 hours as long as the get a rest period of about 8 hours which can even be low light rather than dark.

 

[homer1475]

The sun is up for roughly 12 hours a day, so are my lights.

I will admit that I ramp up and down like the sun, and only have 5 to 6 hours of full intensity lighting with the rest of the time making up the ramping up and down.

 

[scooter31707]

run mines for 12 hours.

 

[tanyamikephil]

This is probably a stupid question but when you say 'full light' are you referring to turning up the white light full on?

 

[homer1475]

I actually top out my blues at 55%, and my whites at 40%.

 

[cincyjim]

My blues come on at 10am, whites on at 12pm, whites off at 5pm, Moonlights on at 7pm, blues off at 7:15pm, Moonlights off at 7am.

 

[hartin461]

12 hours for mine too. AI Sol Blues that start a ramp up 9 am and are full strength at noon.

From there they start to fade till 9pm into 3% till next morning.

 

[hartin461]

double tap

 

[NS Mike D]

Everything on with a slow ramp up from 8am to 11am. Full lights 11am - 2pm then ramp down to 8pm. Moonlights on to 11pm.
At full power, my lights produce 175- 200 PAR at very top of the tank and about 75-100 for the lower corals.

It's a mixed reef tank and this seems to keep everyone happy.

 

[MrHyde]

My T5 Actinics are on for about 10 hours a day. The MH bulb is on for about 6.
I can keep pretty much anything I want with this lighting schedule.

 

[Ebisan]

9am to 9pm with 3 hour ramp up/down.