Longer lighting schedules

[Ryrycosmo]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if anyone with longer light schedules could share their lighting schedule with me.

I am out of the house most of the day so it's hard to feed my fish more than once. My current schedule is:

1 hour ramp to 5% blues
1 hour ramp to full
8 hour full
1 hour ramp to 5% blue
1 hour ramp to off

I was thinking of making the lower ramps 2 hours. What do you guys think?


-Ryan

 

[Timfish]

I would adjust your lighting schedule to your hours. I wouldn't go longer than 12 hours for the tootal shedule.

 

[randomfishdude]

Mine for me is from around 6:30am to 9:00 at night.
Running 2 ai primes and a ncrew 100w.
I wouldn't go this long though. I have a relatively now lighting on mine. My primes run at about 70% and the ncrew about 50%

 

[Tcook]

I agree. Adjust so you can enjoy the tank. Mine come on at noon and go off at 11 pm.

 

[Js.Aqua.Project]

I'm the odd man out here so far.

My lights technically only fully off ~one night a month. I take them down to with Blue and Violet at about 5% at night and then let them run w/ AI's lunar effect from 10p-6a. So on nights with a full moon they will be at the full 5% but at the new moon they will be at 0%.

Outside of that they actually start ramping up at 7a and get to peak at 11a, stay there until 5pm, and then start coming back down until 9p.

 

[randomfishdude]

I'm the odd man out here so far.

My lights technically only fully off ~one night a month. I take them down to with Blue and Violet at about 5% at night and then let them run w/ AI's lunar effect from 10p-6a. So on nights with a full moon they will be at the full 5% but at the new moon they will be at 0%.

Outside of that they actually start ramping up at 7a and get to peak at 11a, stay there until 5pm, and then start coming back down until 9p.

I have moonlight so mine are kinda the same.

 

[Natural_Reefer]

I don't see the need to run full for more than 6hrs!
Here is my XR15 G5 Schedule for my mostly SPS tank. I only run peak for about 6hrs and the rest, I tuned to my preferences.

 

[o2manyfish]

Don't worry about the photo period too much. I have 2 outdoor 180g frag tanks for over 20 years. And their photo period changes dramitcally between winter and summer. While growth is best during the Spring, the colors are great and consistent year round.

Dave B

 

[Ryrycosmo]

Thanks for the responses, I am gonna try and adjust it more around my schedule. I am going to try the 2 hour in morning/evening for the lowest blue setting. I am going to rent a par meter to see how much that puts out exactly.

The hard part with my controller is I can only have 6 time slots, so I can't do too many ramps

 

[ナイトコア猫]

I would adjust your lighting schedule to your hours. I wouldn't go longer than 12 hours for the tootal shedule.

The lighting time for my aquarium is also determined by my family's sleeping hours.

 

[billyocean]

I run 14 hours no ramps.