Switching The Order of My Lights.?

[happygirl]

Hello,
We have a Tek-5, 48", 6 bulb, 54 watts each, lamp. Our current arrangement of the lights makes the tank very blue during non high light time, about 8 hours. We would like to move one of the Daylight Bulbs to the position held by a Blue, thus brightening the tank. Our concern is what effects this would have on the, "high light" period. Our new arrangement would be this:
Highlight: 4 Hours
Off
Blue (Moved From Front)
Blue
Aqua Blue (White)
Blue
Off
Lowlight: 8 Hours
Aqua Blue(Moved to Front)
Off
Off
Off
Off
Actinic
We keep a little of everything, LPS, SPS, and some Zoo Polyps. Any suggestions on bulb placement would be great, thanks.

 

[mr_x]

hi. are you giving your tank only 4 hours of daylight? i would increase that by double. how long have the corals been under this arrangement?
if you wanted to increase the morning/evening light, you might try a UVL 75/25 (75% actinic, 25% daylight) in the place of one of your blues.

 

[happygirl]

You suggest 2 hours low, 8 high, 2 hours low? Do you have any opinion on the overall length for a day any kind of lighting should be on? We've done this since we bought the Tek-5, about 8 weeks. Duncan, Frogspawn,Blasto,Zoas, Sun Coral, and small Monti Frag. Monti is too small and new to tell if its growing, but the others in there have shown growth over the period. I guess thats the long way to, what would you suggest for a lighting schedule? Thanks.

 

[ibew41]

I would go up slow maybe up it an hour every 3 days not to shock the coral and algae bloom you will get

 

[mr_x]

i run my lights 12 hours a day. i try to mimic the daylight schedule at the reef, where we get these creatures from.
i do exactly that- 2.5 hours of actinic, 8 hours of halide, and 2.5 hours of actinic in the evening (overlapping by a half hour).
the slow acclimation is a good idea for the corals' health, but i've never seen an algae bloom from a longer photoperiod if the water quality was good.