Photo period for FOWLR

[Indymann99]

So I have my 120g FOWLR up and running well for about 4mo.

I leave for work at 7am (I like to feed 2x daily - morning and evening) and like to stay up till about 11pm.

I have been running the lights from 7am - 11pm, then lunar lights run all night. Lighting is Coralife 2x65W Actinic 03 + 2x65W 10000K.

Tank inhabitants are
Perc Clown
Yellow Tang
Hippo Tang
CUC - 12 blue leg hermits
Adding Skunk cleaner shrimp soon

Feed primairly flake, Mysis, Nori, brine, and some emerald green.

All water params are 0 (at least to API and Red Sea test kits).

I know this photo period is a bit LONG at 16hrs. Any harm to the fish or inverts?

Thanks

 

[Mike5252]

It's probably not a big deal to the fish, as long as the on/off times stay consistant. I would think 16hrs would fuel algae growth and require more maintainence, but if you're ok with it that's fine.

Also your bulbs may need replaced sooner. My wife has me on a strick "fish budget" so I try to stay at 10 hrs/day to be able to get at least 1 year on bulbs.

I also have a Coralife Lunar Aqualight - 4x96w

 

[reefergeorge]

^^^ I have to agree
I feel no need to have my lights on while I'm at work. Mine turn on at 1, and off at 10. The only problem is the weekends I have darkness until 1.

 

[danorth]

I have 4 pm to 8 pm with my lights, and even then I'm only running half the lights. I don't want algae. When I first set up the tank 3 weeks ago, within 4 days I had brown algae going, that was with 12 hour photo period. Now it is 4 hours and fuge going 20 hours.

 

[skiprr]

I have a 300 gallon FOWLR that has been running for a few years. I have 3 MH with 2 VHO lighting I hardly turn on. I do have 2 48in T5's that turn on at 3:30pm and turns off at 8:00pm everyday. no problems. Keeps the algae growth to a minimum. I also have 3 Lunar moonlights that come on from 6am to 11am and again from 8pm to 10pm. no problems.

2x Personifer angels
2x Flame Hawks
2x Flame Angel
2x Mystery Wrasse
2x Onyx Percula Clowns
1x Emperor Angel
1x Blueline Angel
1x Yellow Spot Hogfish
1x Regal Angel
1x Cleaner Wrasse

 

[danorth]

Pics please skiprr.

 

[Recty]

I run a 250W 13K MH from 11:30am until 11:30pm every day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

My tank is relatively new, but I feed pretty heavily and am still not having algae problems. I do 10% water changes weekly though and I protein skim heavily, so hopefully my algae levels will continue to stay low with no real nutrient buildup to feed them.

 

[predator 1]

When I finally turned back from my "Brief excursion" into the "Reef" world (because the wife liked Corals) and decided to return to the Marine Predator world, it was like a "Breath of fresh air" to to the lighting sequence in my System.
Now, my Predators are more than happy to receive eight hours of lighting. The Groupers don't really care if there is any light! There natural predacious instincts are triggered when it is dark. But for the sake of the other Daylight feeders, and of course, aesthetics, I provide adequate lighting during the day from 10am-6pm.

 

[limitdown]

I have a 200g FO with 4x40watt regular T5's. I purposely went with regular T5's because of the higher efficiency (lumens/watt) vs. other lighting.

The lights come on at 6pm and turn of at 11pm, so they're not on when I'm at work. Natural sunlight in my living room is enough to signal to the fish that it's daytime.

This setup is much more energy efficient as the lights draw fewer watts overall and my chiller doesn't come on for as long. Algae isn't a concern because my sulfur denitrator always keeps my nitrates at zero.