light exposure

[machome79]

setting up 75 gallon. cycling rock in separate tank.( dry rock) going to let rock cycle then place in new tank with dry sand. once i put on my led light how many hours a day do i program it for? I wont be putting coral frags in right away . maybe just a small damsel until i find the frags and fish i want. I may be open to put a small piece of live rock to help seed it a little.

 

[Timfish]

I'd definitely get saome maricultrued live rock to help with sponges and benefical microbes. I'd set teh ligths to the amount of time you'r expecting to run them once you've added corals. Light intensity influences everything in an aquarium and cycling a system with low light then jumping up the light levels will froce a lot of stuff already acclimiated to reacclimate to the new conditions and may result in new nuisance algae cycles. Here's some stuff you may find informative:

Establishing a Healthy Microbiome in a New Aquarium Using Live Rock

Studying the effects of live rock in a newly established aquarium shows that high-quality live rock promotes the rapid establishment of an effective biological filter and a microbial community similar to those found in mature reef tanks.

www.reef2reef.com

"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title (Paper back is ~$20, Kindle is ~$10), both deal with the conflicting roles of the different types of DOC in reef ecosystems. While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems


Changing Seas - Mysterious Microbes


Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont


BActeria and Sponges


Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)


Optical Feedback Loop in Colorful Coral Bleaching


Richard Ross What's up with phosphate"

 

[WVNed]

12 hours is a good place to start. You can even run low levels longer.