Timers!

[Dcole12]

Good Evening,

I just started a salt water tank. I will hopefully have it completely cycled within the next couple weeks and will slowly start adding corals and fish. I am curious what times do people have the lights set for and how many hours per day do they keep their lights on? Just want to get the adjustment correct. Thanks for the input!

 

[ihavecrabs]

Welcome to R2R!

I would say it depends on what type of coral you plan to keep.

Early days in the cycle, you can certainly minimize the intensity and duration to inhibit algae growth, but the tank will almost always go through an ugly phase and is completely normal.

When you start adding corals, I would say it is most common that people run their day time (high intensity) lights for 6-8 hours and their sunrise/sunset (low intensity) for 8-10 (1 hour or so on either end of their day time light schedule.

There is no hard fast rule though.. other than if you get LEDs, don’t tinker with spectrum. Set it and forget it

 

[Harrison.]

Welcome to R2R!

I would say it depends on what type of coral you plan to keep.

Early days in the cycle, you can certainly minimize the intensity and duration to inhibit algae growth, but the tank will almost always go through an ugly phase and is completely normal.
You
When you start adding corals, I would say it is most common that people run their day time (high intensity) lights for 6-8 hours and their sunrise/sunset (low intensity) for 8-10 (1 hour or so on either end of their day time light schedule.

There is no hard fast rule though.. other than if you get LEDs, don’t tinker with spectrum. Set it and forget it

A


Never? Why exactly?

 

[Billdogg]

Once you get your corals acclimated to any specific settings, changing them around will just hinder their growth.

FWIW - When I started in this hobby a little over 30 years ago, T12 VHO was cutting edge. Metal Halide came in around that time too, but I never switched from the VHO's until LED's became a good choice. My lighting schedule then was 12 on/12 off, with the thinking that because most of the corals we keep are from equatorial regions that would most closely mimic their native environment. I switched over to LED's about 6 years ago and kept the same schedule, for the same reason. The only thing I altered was allowing for a brief ramp up and ramp down mornings and evenings.

I really didn't see a compelling reason to change from that.

jm.02

 

[90's reefer]

I run my 6 bulb t5 unit for 9 hours. All on all off.
When I added live and caribsea rock I ran 2 for 2 weeks then 4 for 2 weeks then 6 for 2 weeks. All at 6 hrs. Then went to 9 hrs. It did reduce the ugly algae cycle. Only had the browns for around a month then the green that I get now on the glass before coralline took over.