Light Times...

[ferraridude112]

I have a built in timer on my t-5 light fixture...i am going to start leaving it on 24-7 as of this weekend when i get my first LR in it. So i was wondering how i should set my light timer. It is currently set to the times that came with it... Daylights- 9am-5pm; Atinics 8-9 am, 5-8 pm; Lunars 8pm-6am; No lights are on from 6am-8am. Thanks everybody!

P.S.: in case it helps i have 3 10000k daylights t-5s, 3 460nm Blue Atinics t-5s and 6 lunar LEDs

 

[bdesper311]

I have my actinics running from 11:00 am to 9:15 pm. Daylight (metal halide 150W) 12:00 pm to 7:00 pm and leave the moonlights on 24/7... i see good growth and very little algae so this is what works for me!

 

[ferraridude112]

Sounds good, but will lunars all day burn them out faster?, or do LEDs last long enough to give me a few years with them on all day?

 

[bdesper311]

LED's last a very long time... no worries on burnout!

 

[ferraridude112]

Alright...great!

 

[brianjfinn]

Can I ask why you're planning on leaving it on 24-7? If you're just wanting to do it during the cycle, it seems unnecessary to me. I can't think of any benefit, and you'd be wasting a lot of electricity.

Once you have livestock, keep in mind that after about 8 hours of light, photosynthetic corals reach a limit to where the extra light actually harms them, called photoinhibition. (sp?)

 

[shrimpy brains]

I also am curious as to why you would want to do this?

I think you will get a lot of nuisance algae growth.

 

[smallblock]

Isnt 8 hrs a rule of thumb I remeber Dave saying anything over that is just feeding the algae nothing benifits

 

[misu]

what's the benefit of having just the actinics? not that my setup can do that, right now I'm running all 6 bulbs for 12 hours/day 7am-7pm and moonlight leds are on 24/7

 

[ferraridude112]

Well...i thought it was just normal to run the lights to promote the growth of Coralline algae...does it even need light to grow??? I guess i got some wrong info on that.

 

[brianjfinn]

misu;534932 wrote: what's the benefit of having just the actinics? not that my setup can do that, right now I'm running all 6 bulbs for 12 hours/day 7am-7pm and moonlight leds are on 24/7

This simulates morning/evening. I'm not sure if there's any benefit to the corals or not, but it looks cool.

Ferraridude112;534933 wrote: Well...i thought it was just normal to run the lights to promote the growth of Coralline algae...does it even need light to grow??? I guess i got some wrong info on that.

No, this is true, but coralline takes a while to grow no matter what you do. Meanwhile, while your lights are on continuously, other algae will take advantage of this and cover everything you want the coralline to grow on.

 

[jhutto]

People say not to have lights on when you cycle your rocks. Its not necessary and algae will take hold during the rich nutrient phase.

 

[courterbobby]

jhutto;534968 wrote: People say not to have lights on when you cycle your rocks. Its not necessary and algae will take hold during the rich nutrient phase.

+1 I did a normal light cycle during my cycle and I am just now seeing signs of the algae that grows on the glass going away almost a year later.I run 2 250w metal halides and 2 9w pc minis.
My light cycle is like this. The two mini's come on at 9am. (it is an 80g tank so the minis are a very dim) This is for getting everyone up, then one halide comes on at 11 and the other at 11:30 to ease everyone into full brightness. Minis go off at 11:30 since mh over power them.
In the evening minis come back on at 7 then one halide goes off at 7 then the other off at 7:30 (this eases everyone into night time), then minis off at 10 then lunar lights shine through.

 

[ferraridude112]

Okay, Okay, Okay...I think I didn't do a good enough job of making myself clear...I meant run my light fixture for 24/7 not just the daylights! After 8 hours of running the daylights i would switch to lunars and so on... I have a build in timer on my fixture so i was wanting to set the lights to change throughout the day. If i did run the regular daylights for 8 hrs would this help the coralline grow, or does it not really need it.
Thanks everybody and sorry about the confusion.

 

[brianjfinn]

Ferraridude112;535079 wrote: Okay, Okay, Okay...I think I didn't do a good enough job of making myself clear...I meant run my light fixture for 24/7 not just the daylights! After 8 hours of running the daylights i would switch to lunars and so on... I have a build in timer on my fixture so i was wanting to set the lights to change throughout the day. If i did run the regular daylights for 8 hrs would this help the coralline grow, or does it not really need it.
Thanks everybody and sorry about the confusion.

I would discourage it during the cycle. Coralline can't grow if other, more invasive and faster growing algae takes it's place during the cycle, when the nutrients will run high.

You see, the invasive algae will capitalize on the increased nutrients and you'll get an unwanted bloom that will cover most surfaces in the tank, crowding out space for the coralline to grow. Coralline is a pretty slow grower, and gets most of its growing abilities from calcium levels, rather than nutrient levels.