Light timings

[exeori]

I'm going to be adding my first fish this weekend since my cycle has now finished. Do I need to keep the blue night lights on all night or just for a couple of hours then total darkness? I was thinking
7am-7pm lights
7pm-10pm Blues
10pm-7am off

Advice?

Much appreciated!


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[Sniperhank]

It depends on what the 'blues' are. Some are actinic while others are moonlighting. I personally think that having some total darkness is best during evening hours.

 

[mr_X]

I would have the blues come on a little before the daylights and stay on a littler after the daylights go out, and I also would have a period of darkness. Just because the blue lights are dimmer than the daylights to our eyes, fish still see them as "time to be awake".

 

[Reefer James]

Are these LEDs? Are you running your whites at 100%?

If it's 100% I would do 6 hours of both the blues and whites and only 3 hours of whites. I would absolutely make sure you tank gets night hours so your corals can actually grow. They only grow when it's completely black.. Moonlight does help spawning but it's not possible to do that with your moonlight.

 

[exeori]

Yeah these are leds, so maybes a little less white and a couple of extra hours of blue. Cheers guys


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[Reefer James]

Do you have the ability to ramp intensity throughout the day. Can you even dim the light so its not 100%

You only want 100% light for about 6-7 hours. If you can drop it down to say 30% blue and 15% white you could run that for like 10-11 hours. But blue is a lot more important to corals. The white is ugly and makes the coral loose a lot of it's fluorescent abilities.

 

[mr_X]

White light doesn't make a coral lose anything except immediate aesthetics. You can turn the blues on and instantly have a more colorful coral.

I have LEDs and I run my lighting for a total of 12 hours. I also have a 5000k lamp on some montipora that look rather washed out...but as soon as I turn the low K lamp off, bingo...my montis are colorful as the others again. I grow corals just as well as the next guy.

 

[Autumnsky]

Please keep to the OP's topic, how long to keep the lights on.

OP what is the light fixture you have and what size is the tank?

 

[Autumnsky]

The edited version of the lighting debate is moved here.

Please be polite and do not personally attack other members. Keep to the facts and your experiences or knowledge.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f14/lighting-debate-337647.html