Whats the correct amount of time to keep lights on?

[Jimmye4fish]

I've heard 8 hours a day is the max to keep them on. I have LED lights and also blue LED's. as of now I have it on a timer to be on 3 hours in the morning and 5 hours in the evening. Is this ok or could it cause confusion for the fish and coral? Thanks

 

[Beengirl]

I think that 8-12 hours a day is typical for a reef. If no corals, then I'd only do 8-9 hours to prevent algae. I have mine on for 12 hours, then moonlight for 2 hours after that. I haven't had any problems with algae with that schedule.

 

[Jeremy S.]

I had my reef tank at 12 hours on with 15min of actinic before and after lights are on. But that led to algae problems, so I cut back to 11hours with 30 mins of actinic before and after lights come on.

 

[danbstrong]

I've heard 8 hours a day is the max to keep them on. I have LED lights and also blue LED's. as of now I have it on a timer to be on 3 hours in the morning and 5 hours in the evening. Is this ok or could it cause confusion for the fish and coral? Thanks

Photosynthesis takes 6 hours so if you have this type of coral thats what you need any more than that is preference i run actinics starting at noon till 9 pm and mh 1-7 all sps with great results

 

[Jimmye4fish]

Cool. Thanks for the info! I noticed the first few days I started getting some algae on the tank, then after cutting the time of lights back to 8 hours I haven't had a problem. I guess I could experiment with it little by little.