Newbie Lighting Question..

[Zedder]

I have a new 90 Gallon tank that will be reef and fish and have a general lighting question.

I have a Coralife Lunar Aqualight that has 4x65 watt with 4 3/4 watt moon lights.

What kinda schedule should I have for the Actinic, Daylight, Moon lights?

Also how long should the lights be on each day.

Currently there is only a bubble tip aneome, Clarki Clown, some blue leg crabs and a few snails living in the tank.

Thanks,

 

[electrikat]

First, that is the bare minimum light at 2.88 wpg. The general recommendation is 3 to 5 depending on what you will eventually want. Second The daylights and actinics should run 10 to 12 hours a day and you can start the blues earlier and end later than the daylights so as not to shock the fish. The moonlights should run at night just like nature. Someone else will have to say whether that's enough light for a bubble tip. You might have to get it closer to the lights.

 

[Zedder]

For the lighting formula of 3-5 watts/gallon, is that total tank volume or actual water volume?

I have 140 lbs of fiji live rock in the tank.

I definitely don't want my salt water pets to not have enough light.

 

[Salttanker]

I have a 90G tank as well with 4x65w Coralife retro. I added an MH 250w 14K light to it so I could have more inverts. diyreef.com still has the special going for the whole kit including the bulb for $149 if you're interested. HTH

Mike