Method of Lighting

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wapparia

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Nov 4, 2011
Messages
81
Location
Newcastle, England
HI
All. I have been looking around the site and cant find a discussion on lighting and the best times to turn lights on and off.

The question is :-

What time scale's do people think is best?

Do you leave the moon light on all the way through the cycle or use method of

moonlight for 2 hours then moon off white light for 8-10 hours then white goes off and moonlight goes back on for 2 hours.

i would appreciate the input because i had a previous algae problem that kept occuring in my previous tank and believe it was the lights to blame.

the method would be used for fish and coral system

thanks
 
my lights go on at 9am till 9pm once i get my refugium in i will be using all 4 T5s my blues will go from 9-9 and my fiji purple and white will go from 10-8
 
It depends on the type of lighting, the needs of the tank, and the nutrient load.

If the tank can handle it (the nutrients are not too high), running the lights longer will allow more coral growth. Some people run them up to 12 hours of white, with an extra hour of actinic on each end to simulate dawn and dusk. In many tanks this will promote extra algae and the white (and therefore the actinics) need to be cut back to ten, eight, or even six hours. Actinics should always run an extra hour on each end. Moonlights can stay on 24 hours, or you can turn them off when the other lights are on.
 
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