Light Schedule Help!

[Robert_Popa_918]

I’ve been in the reefing hobby for almost two years now. I’ve been maintaining the same all in one nano system the entire time. Although it’s been fun, I’ve lost interest to be quite frank. I’ve always looked up to these large show tanks with enough money invested to purchase cars. Although I realize that level of reef aquarium takes lots of time and work, I’d like to improve my current reef at least somewhat. The main issue is lighting. Up until now I’ve always had stock lighting on a timer that ran 100% whites and 100% blues for around 8 hours per day, then would ramp down to just 1% blues for the rest of the time. I’ve left the lighting as is for the past 2 years and am unhappy with the white natural look. I just recently bought a stronger LED light system that has controllable spectrums. Problem is I have no idea how to set up the new lighting. I read about how to achieve the nice coral colors, you need something around 20% whites and 80% blues. I am still unsure how to schedule the lights. Do I leave the 80% blues 20% whites on for 8 hours, and then turn off the lights completely for the rest of the day? Is it okay for the fish to be under mostly just blue light? I don’t have any facts but I’m wondering if deep blue lights would affect their eyesight when eating and etc. What I’m needing help from here is to create a light schedule where my corals look the most visually appealing, such as drewslagoon for example. I’ve tried seeing videos before but they just confuse me. Thanks for all the help! -Rob

 

[IslandLifeReef]

Don’t over think it. The bluer light won’t hurt your fish. Slowly adjust the spectrum to what you like. Do you have coral? If so, using a PAR meter will help make sure you are providing enough light. You can rent these. Changing your light spectrum will change the amount of PAR your tank is receiving.

 

[Robert_Popa_918]

Don’t over think it. The bluer light won’t hurt your fish. Slowly adjust the spectrum to what you like. Do you have coral? If so, using a PAR meter will help make sure you are providing enough light. You can rent these. Changing your light spectrum will change the amount of PAR your tank is receiving.

Thank you. Yes I do have some softies and a single LPS coral currently but they aren’t very appealing to the eye under white light. I’ll get a PAR meter. Out of curiosity what is your preferred lighting schedule? To give me a better idea and what a good setup looks like.

 

[IslandLifeReef]

I run my lights from 9am to 7pm with an hour ramp up and down. They are at full strength for 8 hours. I run the equivalent of the AB+ light spectrum.

 

[ScottReefer]

This is a handy read. I had the same issues and couldn’t find enough on the subject. I run an 11 hour with 30 minute ramps on each side. Lower intensity so I keep them on a little longer. I do a 5 hour with white, reds and greens and 5 hour with only blue. I have two tanks - acro dom (reefer 170 - Radion G5 Blue) and a softy/lps dom (10 gallon long AI Prime 16HD). I run the 10 gal at a 50% intensity and the 170 at 70%.

https://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ReefWholesale_CoralLab.pdf