AI Blade light schedule

[yoshiReefer]

What should the lighting schedule be for fishes only at the moment? This is the 3rd week of the cycle and just added first 2 fish today a diamond goby and royal gramma- whos been MIA since I put him in the tank. (Can't find my test from LFS yesterday but everything was solid except nitrate at a 0(was told once fish are in it'll start to go up a bit) and salinity which I did a 9ish gal water change and got down to 1.023 from 1.027)

I just turned it on for first time today since starting the cycle and only went up to 30% total (each color at 30%). Should I adjust for more blue or royal light and less white or more white and less blue & royal? How high should the lighting intensity be? I turned the lights off around 8:15ish with sunset, should they dim down before turning off all the way or do they stay on at 1%-5% over night? Also what should the wave maker be at, I have it at 50% for 12hr and on random at max 65% during the day.

Some general questions about light and fishes. How many hours of the day should the lights be on? Is there times during the day I should set up for them to dim down and then come back up? Do fish follow the natural day/night cycle or can you force them to be swapped through the times you turn the light on/off? Can feeding time be any time during the day while the fish are awake and does being sporadic at what times you feed them effect anything?

Also any tips on setting up a schedule through the myAI app.

I do want corals and hope I can get 1 or 2 in next the week or two, which will inevitably dictate how my lights are run.

 

[mpatterson42]

Fish won't care about your lights, I would figure out what you want your coral lighting schedule to be and set it at 50% of that for a week then the full schedule after that. You're going to get algae growth so you might want to start on that sooner than later so your tank begins maturing.

I recommend this video on AI Prime settings.

 

[Australian_Reef]

Pick a colour palate you like from the templates, I like the WWC presets downloaded from their website, don’t know if they have a blade one but there will be one template on the app that you like. This is much better than messing with sliders, you will be at least getting a tried and trusted mix so just pick one you like.

Then I’d run it low. Maybe 20-30% or less for 6 hrs or so. Just enough to see the fish. And then ramp up over a number of weeks to your final intensity/time. Ramping slow allows grazers and microfauna to outcompete the bad. If you run into algae issues etc then step it back down. Not having corals yet makes it much easier to avoid the issues. Fish will be happy with very low or no light

 

[Freenow54]

What should the lighting schedule be for fishes only at the moment? This is the 3rd week of the cycle and just added first 2 fish today a diamond goby and royal gramma- whos been MIA since I put him in the tank. (Can't find my test from LFS yesterday but everything was solid except nitrate at a 0(was told once fish are in it'll start to go up a bit) and salinity which I did a 9ish gal water change and got down to 1.023 from 1.027)

I just turned it on for first time today since starting the cycle and only went up to 30% total (each color at 30%). Should I adjust for more blue or royal light and less white or more white and less blue & royal? How high should the lighting intensity be? I turned the lights off around 8:15ish with sunset, should they dim down before turning off all the way or do they stay on at 1%-5% over night? Also what should the wave maker be at, I have it at 50% for 12hr and on random at max 65% during the day.

Some general questions about light and fishes. How many hours of the day should the lights be on? Is there times during the day I should set up for them to dim down and then come back up? Do fish follow the natural day/night cycle or can you force them to be swapped through the times you turn the light on/off? Can feeding time be any time during the day while the fish are awake and does being sporadic at what times you feed them effect anything?

Also any tips on setting up a schedule through the myAI app.

I do want corals and hope I can get 1 or 2 in next the week or two, which will inevitably dictate how my lights are run.

as far as I am concerned you are going too fast

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

The nitrate at zero would give me concern, if the tank was recently cycled then nitrate should not be zero. I would be careful about feeding for now and test the water frequently for any ammonia spike.

Do you have an ATO on your system to avoid salinity swings? A water change is generally not the way to drop the salinity, you could have just added rodi water. Are you using rodi water? Do you have a salinity tester?

 

[yoshiReefer]

The nitrate at zero would give me concern, if the tank was recently cycled then nitrate should not be zero. I would be careful about feeding for now and test the water frequently for any ammonia spike.

Do you have an ATO on your system to avoid salinity swings? A water change is generally not the way to drop the salinity, you could have just added rodi water. Are you using rodi water? Do you have a salinity tester?

LFS said fish gets your nitrate going, will wait on corals til im as perfect as im going to be (want an ato and a better lid than the one im making right now). the water change was 9ish gallons out and same amount of fresh rodi in. No salinity tester yet that will come a week or so before i put my first coral in to make sure im maintaining a proper range for corals.

 

[Freenow54]

LFS said fish gets your nitrate going, will wait on corals til im as perfect as im going to be (want an ato and a better lid than the one im making right now). the water change was 9ish gallons out and same amount of fresh rodi in. No salinity tester yet that will come a week or so before i put my first coral in to make sure im maintaining a proper range for corals.

See why I sometimes get tired of giving advise ?

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

LFS said fish gets your nitrate going, will wait on corals til im as perfect as im going to be (want an ato and a better lid than the one im making right now). the water change was 9ish gallons out and same amount of fresh rodi in. No salinity tester yet that will come a week or so before i put my first coral in to make sure im maintaining a proper range for corals.

Ammonia gets nitrate going, not necessarily fish. Fish poop, which is ammonie, bacteria will break it down into nitrite, and different bacteria will break the nitrite down into nitrate. This is called the nitrogen cycle.

We cycle our tanks before adding fish, means we add a form of ammonia, it could be pure bottled ammonia, it could be fish flakes, it could be a piece of table shrimp, heck in the old days the reef vigilantes would pee in their own tanks to provide that starting ammonia.

Your lfs should know all this, shame on them. Using a live fish to cycle a tank can cause harm or even death. Even if they survive it can burn their lungs even permanently scar their lungs. Its considered cruel by many to cycle with a live fish.

Having a saltwater tank without a salinity tester is like driving a car with no speedometer, you won't know what you're doing. I would suggest to wait for fish, get a salinity tester and get some test kits to test your water and make it safe before adding fish. without test kits you are putting the cart before the horse. You might be able to wing it for a short time but it won't work out long term. If you come here for help, the first question will always be to share your parameters. Anyway I wish you good luck