Minimum amount of lighting period

[rich415]

I recently put up a fifteen gallon frag tank. I put a 150Watt metal halide w/ a phoenix bulb on it. The thing is, it's in the bedroom (a very small bedroom at that) and kinda brightens the room a bit too much for my wife. Of course I'm thrilled with it!

My question is:

What is the minimum amount of time I could keep the halide on without disrupting the corals too much? I have a few Monti Caps, Birds Nest, Xenia, and Zoas. When my acros get large enough to frag (quite some time from now), I will be propagating them as well.

Thank you in advance for any replies.

 

[DEXNC]

Are you talking day or night, I would run them about 8 hours during the day since it is a frag tank. I am assuming no one will be in the in the room all day.

 

[rich415]

Yeah I'm talking about the day. No ones in the room during the day. only occasionally on the weekend days. Maybe 9am-5pm so we can sleep in on weekends.

Thank You

 

[DEXNC]

I think that is solid hours to run your lights, the wife should be happy, I hate my situation my display is on from about 7am to about 4pm, no one is at home during those hours. LOL

 

[miwoodar]

My lights come on at noon and go off at midnight. Why not push it later in the day? Not only will you get more time to watch the tank, but half of your lighting cycle will be during the cooler parts of the day. Of course, I'm a night owl so midnight in the bedroom wouldn't impact me.