lighting question 24h? 12/12?

richie1742

richie1742

Member
i just got my new power compact for my tank and it Comes with one 65 watt Dual Daylight and one 65 watt Dual Actinic... should i leave both lightes on 24 hours or do 12 hour cycle of one at a time?
THX in adv. :joy:
 
jacknjill

jacknjill

Active Member
dont leave them on for 24 hours. do something like the actinics come on in the morning, then the daylights come on along with the actinics on, then the daylights go off and the aactinics stay on a little longer. i would do this so that there isnt a sudden shock of daylight for the fish and then total darkess lol. here is my light schedule:
9:00 AM Actinics come on
10:30 AM halides come on
7:30 PM halides go off
9:00 PM actinics go offf
soon i am getting moonlights to go on when the actinics go off
HTH
 
richie1742

richie1742

Member
wow such a complex sched. im shur you use timmers right? also dont actinics have to be on all night? i have corals in my tank.
-thanks
 
jer4916

jer4916

Active Member
moonlights are nice, im buying some for my tank....as far as night goes..lights should be off unless there moonlights....fish need to sleep too!...hehe but i do run my lights like the other guy on here...blue in the morning, then my compacts come on for a hour or so..then the MH's come on for about 5 hours then the compacts stay on for 2 more hours..then the attinics go off around 2 hours later...
ends up being a total of 12 hours of light.
~chris
 
dogstar

dogstar

Active Member
Turn them both on in the morning and turn them both off at night Most ppl. use timers and turn on the atinics about 1/2 to 1 hour befor the daylight bulb and off about the same after the daylight goes off. This simulates the sunrise and setting sort of plus it does not scare the fish as quick. What size tank because thats not much light for corals unless its a small tank.
 
wax32

wax32

Active Member
You looking for more? LIke others have stated... get timers...
Turn on the actinics at say 9am. Then turn on the whites at 930am. Turn off the whites at 930pm and turn off the actinics at 10pm.
Most ppl have their main (white) lights on for 10-12 hours per day. Set your actinics so that they come on 1/2 hour before and stay on 1/2 hour after. It isn't hard. It also doesn't matter to the corals what time they are on... for instance if you are a night owl and want to view your corals at night, have them come on at maybe 3pm and off at 3am! Doesn't matter. Just be CONSISTANT.
Couple decent timers cost you maybe 20 bucks. You can also look into the ones by coralife specially for reeftank lighting.
 
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