lighting Reef Tank

[dventri]

How long should the lights remain on in reef tank. I am currently
using a timer & I have it on for about 5 hours a day. Is this long
enough ?

 

[jonthefb]

anywhere from 8 to 12 hours is standard. what type of lightign do you have, etc.?
good luck
jon

 

[jferrier]

I've read anywhere from 8-16 for vho or pc and 5 to 8 for metal halides. I personally have about 150 watts of power compact
1/2 actinic and 1/2 white on a 58 gallon on a 10 hr. time. I had it set for 12 hrs but noticed that after about 9 1/2 hrs some of my corals started to close up even though the light was still on.

 

[nm reef]

I think most of us attempt to mimic natural day/night cycles to some extent. I run my actinics from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM... and my 10k PC's from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. They are run on seperate timers...one for the VHO actinics the other for the 10k PC's.

 

[quazi]

I run my 330 watts of 50/50 VHOs over my 55 gallon tank for 13 hours a day. I have very happy inhabitants.
If you have your light on a timer, your corals will start to close up before your lights go out, as they are expecting the cycle.

 

[richard rendos]

220 watts of VHO actinic from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm. 800 watts of MH from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm.

 

[marinemarty]

Hi, I run my Actinics from 10:30AM to 10 PM and the MH from 11AM to 9 PM , It may be too much, as of now all i have is green algea on my rocks, but my cleanears are just starting to catch up. I will give it another couple months and see. HTH
Martin
PS I run my refugium 24/7 , a NO Flo. 18 watt over 22 gallons..