How long should I have my lights on?

[Mrs Fish]

I have three sets of lights and am trying to figure out when each set should go on and off.

These are actinics, MH, moon lights.

Here's what I thought:

11am - actinics on
noon - MH on
8pm - Actinics and MH off, moon lights on
midnight - moon lights off

Not sure if I can leave moonlights on all night.

Is 8-9 hours of light too short or long?

I was timing it so when we're in the room in the evening we can enjoy the tank.

Mrs Fish

 

[smcnally]

My schedule is:
12PM Actinic On
1PM MH On

10PM MH Off
11PM Actinic Off

Moonlighs can stay on all night.

 

[Scuba_Dave]

I'm not home until 6pm, and for the summer have my lights staggered to avoid the heat of (3) 250w MH on all at the same time

9a - 1st light on
I also have a Lights of America 6.5k that goes on at 11a & off at 11pm
11am 2nd light on
5pm 1st light off
6pm 3rd light on (center)
7pm 2nd light off
11-midnight (adjustable) last light off

When the moonlights go in I will run them from 11p-maybe 3-4am
When I connect actinics I will change the lighting schedule
Actinics 6p-11p

Length of time for light cycle depends upon what you have for corals, and what they need for light. I'm actually considering cutting my light cycle back to 6 hours since I have mostly softies

 

[Mrs Fish]

Sounds like I can even extend my actinics to be on for 9 hours with actinics one hour either side .. that's what I'll probably do ... and leave moon lights on all nights.

 

[smcnally]

Oh yeah, my refugium light is on from midnight until 8am

 

[Mrs Fish]

Why do you put the refugium on at night?

 

[delta]

counteracts PH drop after lights out

My schedule
9:30AM actinics on
12:30 Middle halide on
1:00pm end halides on
8:00pm middle halide off
8:30pm end halides off
9:30pm actinics on Moonlights on

 

[Mrs Fish]

Didn't know there was a PH drop after lights out ... maybe I'll do that with my fuge lights too.

 

[smcnally]

It has to do with photosynthesis. From what I gather, photosynthesis causes the PH to rise. So if all your lights are out it causes a dip. If you have a refugium and set its schedule to the opposite of your tank, it makes the PH drop less, and sometimes barely noticeable.

 

[Mrs Fish]

Will take your advise!

 

[Duds]

my shcedule(completely different than everyone else)
6 am actinics on
8 am mh on
6 pm mh off
8 pm actinics off
8 pm moonlights on
6 am moonlights off
hope this helps
Duds

 

[Mrs Fish]

Great .. I've learned that I can keep my MHs on a little longer for us to enjoy ..

 

[stevenp]

1:00pm actinics on
1:30pm left halide on
1:40pm right halide on
10:00pm left halide off
10:10pm right halide off
10:40pm actinics off

Steve

 

[Andy O]

Should her light cycle be this long while the tank is first cycling to try and avoid any algae blooms?

 

[Mrs Fish]

Good point .. any comments?

 

[smcnally]

Should her light cycle be this long while the tank is first cycling to try and avoid any algae blooms?

That's true, I didn't think of that. I only put my lights on for a couple hours a day while cycling.

 

[Andy O]

I think that I only ran mine for about 2 or 3 hours when I started up the tank.

 

[Mrs Fish]

I'll just run them for a few hours and build up to a 9 or 10 hour full light show over the next few weeks.

 

[Andy O]

Take it slow with the lights. Until you start to have things in the tank other than the live rock there is no real need for long periods of light -- especially if you want to keep algae outbreaks to a minimum at the beginning.