Hello I'm a newbie. Biocube 29g question about lighting

[Jami]

Hi all,
I am new to the fish world and I have a question.
I have a 29g Biocube and I would like to know what your recommendations are as far as my lighting schedule, FOWLR.
I have one (2-inch) maroon clownfish, a beautiful 20 pound piece of live rock, one coral banded shrimp, and five little margarita snails.
What would an appropriate lighting schedule be? There are three lights that came stock with my Biocube, the little LED moon lights, the blue light (it's loud when you turn it on like it has a fan or something), and the white light.
I do not have corals, nor do I plan to.
Thanks in advance for any advice,
Jami

 

[Sniperhank]

In a system without anything photosynthetic, the lighting schedule can be whatever you want it to be. I wouldn't keep them on for longer than 10 hours, but a simple lighting schedule for whenever you are home would be best. I know I hate coming home to the lights already being out in my tank.

 

[Jami]

Are you saying keep all three lights on during the day?
Would I need to keep the little moon light on during the night or turn the lights off completely?
Also, should I do a water change every week or every two weeks, and how many gallons?
Thanks!!

 

[Sniperhank]

What biocube is this? When the blues come on it kicks on a fan? Sounds like a rough attempt at being able to support coral from the manufacturer.
Either way, whatever looks nice to you. The fish don't care. You can run the moonlights at night no problem as long as they aren't more powerful actinic bulbs like you might be describing.

 

[smoothie7]

I run both main bulbs from 12:30pm-7:15pm and I have all 5 slots of LEDS filled with blue and those are on from 7:15pm - 11:15pm. All my corals seem very happy.

 

[chefbill]

Yes, the blue actinics have a fan, thus the noise. The white is actually a 10k. The LEDs are just blue lights. I have the same tank, and it easily supports up to the easier SPS like bird's nest.
My schedule is:
actinics on at 9AM
10K on at 10AM
10K off at 6PM
actinics off at 8PM

If just fish, what ever you want, so long as you're not fueling algae too much.

Here is a post of mine from a different forum, it is related to coral, just in case you want to expand your livestock in the future.

Copy and paste from previous post:

I think my 29g BioCube has turned out nicely. I guess you'd call it a mixed reef. It has stock lighting, with the edition of 3 more LED lunar bars. I did add an addition PH for more erratic and powerful flow.

When I first started the tank, I used the middle chamber as a refugium with chaeto and live rock rubble. After using algaefix for a hair algae problem, most of the chaeto died off, so I removed what remained and the rubble. Replaced all this chemipure elite, ceramic rings and a nitrate reducing pad and purigen. Also added a Corallife skimmer to chamber 1.

Here's what's happening:

Zoas and palys grow very fast. Mushrooms split rapidly, in fact, just sold the last mushroom out of my tank last night, finally. I have a yuma that doubled in size, but hasn't split. I had a devil's hand that looked like a SPS frag when I got it, 8 months later it was 7 inches across and 8 high. Rics always detatch and get lost in my tank, only softy that hasn't taken off in the tank.

I have frogspawns and hammers putting out heads, but a torch was going gangbusters for 6 months, then dies from brown jelly in 3 days. Duncans grow like weeds, as do candy canes. Cyphastrea and favias have noticeable growth. Lobos on the bed have amazing color, but I've not had them long enough to notice any growth, other than amount of 'puffyness'. Acans don't do well, nor have plates, but all other LPS have done well.

Ponape and green polyp birdsnest are doing great, green slimer has put out 2 nubs/stalks in 3 weeks, monti caps and a monti setosa growing well. ORA mint pavona and a cactus coral sending out plates constantly. These are the only SPS I've tried to keep, but all have done well.

And amazingly, the stock lights are great for NPS, I have a chili coral that looks amazing, bright red with stark white polyps. My sun coral isn't looking great, but to be honest, I probably need to target feed it more.

Also, when I had an issue, ELEVEN MONTHS after purchase, Corallife went above and beyond fixing the problem, to the extent of sending me an entire new hood, as well as an extra set of cooling fans. This was knowing that most people would never buy a 2nd biocube, as everyone wants bigger and more LOL. Still, I received a few hundred dollars worth of freebies, not by being 'that guy', just being polite and honest. Their customer service is top notch.

IME and IMO, these AIOs are doing exactly what they say they will, just accept the inherent limitations of stock. The nice thing is they are also easily customizable, rimless, LED, seperate sumps, media racks, anything can be changed.