what time do you turn your lights on?

[h2o]

Knowing i should have light around 8 - 10 hours. is it ok to turn my first set light on as late as 3pm, 2nd at 5pm, all at 6pm (noon light) for family viewing and gradually decrease and turn off at 11pm ??

 

[vince]

do you have corals or FO?
if you have corals, I don't think you should do that because they probably won't get enough intensity of light they need.

 

[cavil]

I have often thought about this my self. I am a shift worker and often don't get home until after 9:30pm.
My reef is in my bedroom so I often watch my fish wakeup as the room gets lighter when the sun rises. Corals I don't think it would be a problem as long as you keep the same lighting duration. Fish on the other hand ... Can you stress a fish out by giving it late nights every night and then to have it wake up early every morning?

 

[bassmaster]

I have two 55 watt lights for my 20 gallon tank. It gets pretty hot, considering my top is small. So what I do is turn it on in the morning, have the timer turn it off about 1pm (so the lights can cool down), back on about 2pm, and finally off for the night about 8:30.
I'm not sure if the afternoon break is really all that smart, but I don't have any corals or anenomies yet. Just LR and a few fish. So it's okay.

 

[rickt4du]

My actinics come on at 3pm, daylight at 4pm
daylight off at 10pm, actinics off at 11pm.

 

[fender]

I only have 4 40w NO bulbs over my tank, so I turn them on at about 7am and they go off about 10pm.

 

[blueberryboomer]

We start out about 7am with our atinic blue, around 9am we turn our daylights on, at about 1pm we turn the mhs on, at 5pm we turn the mhs off, after I feed at 8pm I turn the daylights off and at about 10pm I shut the atinic off. Kind of a long process, but I'm home all day, and everyone in the tank seems to like it so if it works I say way change it. Later Lisa

 

[option720]

BassMaster-
I don't think that is a good idea to turn your lights off in the middle of the day and then turn them back on an hour later. if you are worried about heat why don't you put some fans in there and leave the lights on throughout the day. I think you could be causeing some stress to your fish by doing what you are currently doing. But then again what do you care about stress with your fish. if you don't like one you just flush it down the toilet while it is still alive. I'm out

 

[option720]

Oh bye the way. i turn my actinic lights on at 7:30am or so and the daylights on around 9:30am and turn the daylights of at around 8pm and the actinics off at around 10pm.

 

[dburr]

I say you are god over your reef. You control the daylight hours, just keep it consistant. No on and offs blah blah blah...
They don't know what time it is(unless it's feeding time) Mine come on at 11am and off at 10pm. I like to sit back and watch my tank before I go to bed My .02

 

[broomer5]

blues on at noon
daylights on at 1:00pm
daylights off at 8:00pm
blues off at 10:00pm

 

[saltwatersensae]

Blues on at 7:45
Days on at 9:15
Days off at 9:00
blues off at 10:00