I dont know how long to keep my saltwater aquarium lights on for?
by Aquaboy on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 | 4 Comments
I am starting a 29 gallon reef tank. I have a power compact light with 1 actinic blue light and one 10,000 k daylight bulb for day time and 2 LED moon lights and I dont know how long I should have each of them on for or when to turn them on?
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10 to 12 hours
It does depend on the corals you are keeping but rule of thumb is to simulate the day cycle.You would wont your blue lights to come on for an hour or so before the white lights and both be on through the day at night you will wont your white lights to go off and an hour or so later your blue lights to go off..My moon lights are on 24/7,I never turn them off.
I am a late sleeper..lol..So I have my blue light coming on at 10:30 and my white lights coming on at 11:30.The white lights go off at 10 pm and blue lights are off at 11pm.That gives a 12 hour or so day time cycle.
And I have no algea out break of any kind.
Buy timers for your lights,,saves so much aggravation.I bought two cheap ones at walmart for 5 bucks a piece
Seems to me that you are not finding a straight answer, you’ve asked this sooo many times, here is a number, its a Pet store online, and they will help tremendously, its Drs. Foster and Smith, also with Liveaquaria, 1-800-334-3699 call they are very friendly!
I would run your moonlights for about 14-16 hours (some prefer to run these 24/7, however I have yet to find in benefit form this that can be scientifically proven other than aesthetics).
As for the other two lights, I recommend timers that would turn the actinic light on about 1/2 hour ahead of the daylight bulb and 1/2 hour later in the evening. I generally have the brightest lights on for about 12 hours per day.
Do you know the wattage, lumens per watt, rating of these bulbs?
This is very important with a Reef tank.
Having the proper lighting parameters is so important for a reef tank, and the wattage per gallon rule is only a starting point the same way the 1” fish per gallon rule is, neither are all that reliable for a serious aquarist
For more lighting information, please visit this site:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html
Not to get too political, however I cannot in good conscience let the last comment go by; I would never recommend getting advice from liveaquaria/DR. Foster & Smith, being in this business for many, many years and with many contacts in the fish importing trade and other aspects of this hobby (not to mention the many clients I have talked to that have dealt with them), liveaquaria is not a place I would recommend getting advice from or anything else IMO.
:~) C