What is a good lighting schedule?

salty-fish

Member
Right now I have my Actinics on from 7am to 9pm. I have my Actinic "White" on from 12pm to 6pm. Is this a good schedule from my tank?
 
S

saxman

Guest
You're about right...what you want to do is a dawn/dusk photoperiod where your actinics come on 1-2 hrs before your daylights, add your daylights, then switch them off 1-2 hrs before the actinics turn off. about 8-10 hrs of daylight is what I run with actinics on each end for an hour.
 

meowzer

Moderator
Sounds good to me....I keep my actinics on from 7 a.m. - 10 p.m.
 
whites vary from tank to tank, but the tank with the metal halides is 1 p.m. - 8 p.m.
 

flower

Well-Known Member
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Salty-Fish http:///forum/thread/380236/what-is-a-good-lighting-schedule#post_3308830
Right now I have my Actinics on from 7am to 9pm. I have my Actinic "White" on from 12pm to 6pm. Is this a good schedule from my tank?

 
 

Sounds good to me, I see allot of folks run their white lights for a short time. Me, I run my MH lights 10 hours and actinic 12. There are no set rules, but corals need the light so they are your indicators.
 

salty-fish

Member
You answered my next question Flower about lighting times and coral. My 1 little brown button polyp just multiplied to 2 polyps. LOL
 

kender

Member
Okay, I am a tad bit confused here. I was only running my actinics as dawn dusk lights so for 2 hours before and after with a 30 minute overlap in the lighting schedule. What your saying though is that I should leave them on with the 10k's all day?
 

flower

Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by kender http:///forum/thread/380236/what-is-a-good-lighting-schedule#post_3309080
Okay, I am a tad bit confused here. I was only running my actinics as dawn dusk lights so for 2 hours before and after with a 30 minute overlap in the lighting schedule. What your saying though is that I should leave them on with the 10k's all day?

 
 
 
Kender, There are true blue actinic 420nm and there are just blue lights. Just blue tinted lights make everything look bluer and are for looks mostly. True actinic, have a light that corals can use. MH lights are very strong and coral actually can live without actinic. This means they are not must haves. If you have them, use them..run them right along with the white lights.
 
My actinic lights come on 30 minutes before the MH lights and run 1 hour and 30 minutes after the MH kick off for the night, everything is on a master control timer. Yes I run them together at the same time, most people do..but you do not have to. So it is a personal choice.
 
Salty-Fish, LOL…I don’t think my advice helped your polyps grow, that was too fast..so that means you were doing something right to start with. Congratulations! It’s always great when stuff grows..good job.
 
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