Biocube 14 (lighting issues)

[RicoNica]

I'm currently running a BioCube 14 and my lights are on a timmer, it starts up around 730am to 10pm.
Should I be the the light this long?
And another question..
Everytime the light comes on in the morning the fans makes alot of noise for a couple minutes, is this normal?

 

[carey]

i would cut the lighting down quite a bit. I run my blues from 9am to 9pm and my whites from 10am to 8 pm.

And yeah, my fans make a horrible noise at first, I just nbag the lid and it stops LOL.

 

[RicoNica]

O really??
I've on running my blue lights only for the past three weeks I thought the white light was just to be turned on if u wanted better lighting to see the fish.. :|
thanks Carey

 

[RicoNica]

Hi Carey,
Could u explain the difference between the white and Blue lights for me?
And y it is necessary to have them both on at the same time?
Thanx

 

[carey]

The bluie lights are for coral growth and for being pretty. I start with the blues to give the fish a lite wake up and then an hour later the whites go on to give them their daytime. At night the whites go off as if it's dusk and they know it;s almost bedtime. Then off go the whites and hour later and its off to sleep for most of them.

The moonlighting lights I do not use though, they have no benefit other than for you to kinda see into the tank. I find they are horribly dim and I can't see anything so I dont really use em.

If you run just the whites it will give your water an almost yellow hue since they are only 10k spectrum bulbs, but with the blues on too it gives it a nice hue in my opinion. It also makes it easy to know when to replace the bulbs as they will both be due around the same time.

Do you have any corals?

 

[RicoNica]

O i see how it works now.
Thanks Carey

And yes I do have some coral'
I jus took some pictures of my tank below'

I haven't been able to identify the large plate coral on the left' but at nite wen the lights are off It has 2" tentacles that come out of every green spot and it looks really nice!

 

[tlkng1]

Hi Rico

Let me butt in here for a moment. Carey is obviously correct on the reason for both lights. In a BioCube, the moonlights are on automatically, you can't turn them off as long as there is power to the other lights.

The "chemistry" behind the lights is what makes the difference between the blue (Actinic) and White lamps. Certain critters need different types of light. The combination of actinics and white is what keeps a reef "healthy" since some corals get their "food" through the light. Obviously correct water parameters are important as well If, however, you find you are getting an explosion of algae for some reason, it doesn't hurt to lessen the light time or keep the white off entirely for a few days. The nuisance algae likes the white light so removing that light will cause the algae to die off.

I didn't read through all the posts but a standard cycle is an hour of actinics followed by 8 hours of actinic and white combined, then another hour of actinics before everything goes off at night. The moonlights are supposed to mimic just what it says..the glow of the moon on the reef through the water. The moonlights in my tank, also a 14 Bio, are bright enough that they act as a night light in the room.

 

[carey]

Wow impressive tank! Really....wasnt expecting so much and so lively! Great job there...

 

[RicoNica]

Thanx for the great advice guys

 

[Crabs]

Excuse me for butting in also. I run my lights just like the others. With the help of timers for each. But I also use a timer for the moon lites. Which come on a 1/2 hour before and off ,1/2 hr. after the other lights. Beautiful tank by the way

 

[ksl1972]

Yes very nice tank and great looking corals. Makes me want to dig my bio cube out of the closet. Make sure you get a good timer. I have found the ones from home depot to be more reliable than the ones designed for aquarium use. They just don't last. Sad to say really great idea and design but they don't function as advertised. I have tried two sets of manual timers and two sets of the digital. Not have lasted over a month. My 50/50 cam on at odd hours of the night and we actually had security stop by thinking we were growing pot in out living room. Because of a odd blue glow coming from our windows.

 

[carey]

LOL. I;ve been using timers from walmart and they have held up pretty well so far over the last year or so and they are only like $5. I like the non digital ones where you push in the little buttons for the hours on and off.

 

[ksl1972]

Yes I have something like that. The are so reliable but the wiring nightmare under my 210. Well just say 3 timers for 12 plugs, a lot of zip ties and a label maker make it a lot easier.

 

[carey]

i did the label maker tags too! Got tired of guessing! I thought I was the only one. I have extension cords running form another room since my 125g setup cant all be handled on the same circuit. lol Too much draw I guess.

 

[ksl1972]

I'm got lucky on power to a point. My outlet that my 210 is plugged into is connect to GFI in the kitchen that the coffee pot is plugged into. Lost power to the wall the tank is plugged into and it took a day to figure out that it was a GFI in the kitchen. I was thinking I would have to move the tank to rework the outlet behind until wife told me the coffee pot was not working. Don't know why they are on the same circuit. They are on opposite sides of the house. Well anyway problem solved. No more coffee for the wife. Lol

 

[ksl1972]

The nightmare wires!

 

[Crabs]

I've got multiple timers also. For both my SW tank and FW tanks. Have both digital and regular types. Some from Wal-mart and some fm Lowe's hardware store. I've never experienced a problem except having to switch them for daylight savings and back to standard. I have so many electronics to reset it takes me 1/2 a day