32 biocube lighting

[SlicVic]

Hi everybody!
I am still wrestling with by lightning schedule in my 32 BioCube! I have corals some fish and invertebrates and live rock. It has been established for two and a half years. When I had the daylight LED light come on I seem to get tons of algae so I reduced it and finally removed it. I'm only running the color enhancing LEDs and the blue LEDs. Can somebody help me with an appropriate schedule.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Hi, what type of light do you have? What intensity and duration do you have it on now?

 

[kevgib67]

I have the traditional 12 hour schedule the light from the Biocube came but I decreased the full whites to 5 hours. Typically full whites are on when I’m not home, I hat how washed out the colors of my corals look.

 

[SlicVic]

Hi, what type of light do you have? What intensity and duration do you have it on now?

Lights came with the BioCube and so I don't know the intensity however, I have the lights come on ramping from 6:00 till 7:00 and then on until 2:00 and then they ramp down for an hour. They go by channels: 1001 our daylight LEDs, Channel 2 is color enhancing LDS with automatic sunrise and sunset function, and channel 3 are blue LEDs with Moonrise and moon set.

 

[SlicVic]

Lights came with the BioCube and so I don't know the intensity however, I have the lights come on ramping from 6:00 till 7:00 and then on until 2:00 and then they ramp down for an hour. They go by channels: 1001 our daylight LEDs, Channel 2 is color enhancing LDS with automatic sunrise and sunset function, and channel 3 are blue LEDs with Moonrise and moon set.

Channel one are the daylight LEDs. I don't have those on at all right now. The others are on for a total of 8 hours.

 

[littlefoxx]

I put a kessil on my biocube, much better

 

[mnaella]

Lights came with the BioCube and so I don't know the intensity however, I have the lights come on ramping from 6:00 till 7:00 and then on until 2:00 and then they ramp down for an hour. They go by channels: 1001 our daylight LEDs, Channel 2 is color enhancing LDS with automatic sunrise and sunset function, and channel 3 are blue LEDs with Moonrise and moon set.

From what I learned, the stock BioCube LEDs are just not strong enough to support corals long term. I opted for Steve's LEDs retrofit so I could keep the enclosed hood. The installation wasn't too crazy (I did it myself in about 30 minutes). Everything is thriving. Something to consider! Algae blooms may also be related to overfeeding.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I use a Nicrew 100 watt on my 32 gallon, I'm happy with it and it can grow anything, its a good light for that size tank.

 

[SamMule]

Not sure why everyone rags on the stock biocube lights so hard... They grow corals just fine. Maybe it's different because mine was a 16, but I only ran the whites and blues. Added a 12" reefbrite strip for some extra pop.

IIRC...
Blues came on at 0900. Off at 2200.
Daylight came on at 1100. Off at 2000.
No reason to run the reds in a reef tank. Other than to grow algae...

 

[kevgib67]

Not sure why everyone rags on the stock biocube lights so hard... They grow corals just fine. Maybe it's different because mine was a 16, but I only ran the whites and blues. Added a 12" reefbrite strip for some extra pop.

IIRC...
Blues came on at 0900. Off at 2200.
Daylight came on at 1100. Off at 2000.
No reason to run the reds in a reef tank. Other than to grow algae...

Same.

 

[mnaella]

Same.

Daaaaaaaaaaaang that's a nice little reef! Stock BioCube LEDs!?

 

[mnaella]

Not sure why everyone rags on the stock biocube lights so hard... They grow corals just fine. Maybe it's different because mine was a 16, but I only ran the whites and blues. Added a 12" reefbrite strip for some extra pop.

IIRC...
Blues came on at 0900. Off at 2200.
Daylight came on at 1100. Off at 2000.
No reason to run the reds in a reef tank. Other than to grow algae...

Beautiful!!!!!! Wowzas! Stock LEDs!!?

 

[kevgib67]

Daaaaaaaaaaaang that's a nice little reef! Stock BioCube LEDs!?

Yes except I added 2 12” LED USA actinic strips to try and maintain some coral color when the whites are on at 100%. If you go to My Tank Thread you can see everything was growing great before adding them.