Corwise
New Member
Trying to figure out how to set up my Hydra 32s. I recently set up an IM 150gal Int. Beautiful tank. I have three Hydra 32s on top of it. The aquarium store which helped me set everything up gave me their schedule, which seem to be working fine. I can also download other schedules. But I have two basic questions that I can't figure out. I can understand and program the app, this is more the science behind how I should set up the lights?
Last time I had a tank I had 4 T5s, 1 blue and 3 white. It was easy, blue came on an hour early and stayed on an hour later. No problem. But I have no idea which colors on the Hydras are "important" and which are just "add color." Red for example, once I have corals I can play with it to make it look good. But is red needed at all? Or is it just a "make it pretty" color? UV? I've been googling trying to find any guide or instruction but can't find anything with actual data, just pictures of "isn't this pretty" type.
Second, how important is length of light. Old tank lights came on when I was waking up, this way I could give the fish a feeding in the morning. Lights turned off as I was heading to bed, that way I could enjoy watching my tank in the evening. All the schedules I can find seem to follow the internet advice of 1 hour wake up, 8 hours light, 1 hour sunset, then off. That's only 10 hours a day. Following that schedule I could turn them on in the morning but they'll be off by the time I got home, or no lights at all in the morning and the fish won't eat until evening timeframe. I'll fully admit I was doing it wrong before, but fish and corals did fine. Any thoughts/inputs on this one?
Thanks much, don't mean to whine, but trying to figure out these new high tech lights is confusing me. :)
Last time I had a tank I had 4 T5s, 1 blue and 3 white. It was easy, blue came on an hour early and stayed on an hour later. No problem. But I have no idea which colors on the Hydras are "important" and which are just "add color." Red for example, once I have corals I can play with it to make it look good. But is red needed at all? Or is it just a "make it pretty" color? UV? I've been googling trying to find any guide or instruction but can't find anything with actual data, just pictures of "isn't this pretty" type.
Second, how important is length of light. Old tank lights came on when I was waking up, this way I could give the fish a feeding in the morning. Lights turned off as I was heading to bed, that way I could enjoy watching my tank in the evening. All the schedules I can find seem to follow the internet advice of 1 hour wake up, 8 hours light, 1 hour sunset, then off. That's only 10 hours a day. Following that schedule I could turn them on in the morning but they'll be off by the time I got home, or no lights at all in the morning and the fish won't eat until evening timeframe. I'll fully admit I was doing it wrong before, but fish and corals did fine. Any thoughts/inputs on this one?
Thanks much, don't mean to whine, but trying to figure out these new high tech lights is confusing me. :)
