Setting up lighting

MugiwaraGrape · Jul 29, 2023

Hello everyone,

I am planning to put together a 25gal tank Monday and was wanting advice on lighting settings. I plan to have things like frogspawn, hammers, and zoanthids eventually along with a clown and maybe other inverts, but that is getting farther into the future. Currently I have an AI Prime 16HD Reef light and was curious what would be good overall lighting settings and possibly times. The tank is a waterbox 25 peninsula AIO. All information is greatly appreciated.

Also, should I have this light with those settings going while it is cycling or something else?

Thanks for reading and all your help!

blaxsun · Jul 29, 2023

I like the David Saxby profile on AI's website.

jabberwock · Jul 29, 2023

My lights start ramping up to blues from 10 am for four hours. Then about 4 hours of 80% full spectrum. Then 4 hours of ramping down to blues (12 hours). Check out my tank thread to see my setup. Consider tank depth and goals. My LFS rents a PAR meter. Your set up is gonna be adjustable...

MugiwaraGrape · Jul 29, 2023

blaxsun said:
I like the David Saxby profile on AI's website.

Just went and looked. That's so cool! I had no idea that was a thing. Haha Pretty meat there are several set ups for pretty much every need. Since Saxby is using different models of lights do you think it would be an issue for me? I assume so since amount of illumination, depth, intensity, and so on are all factors in different lights.

blaxsun · Jul 29, 2023

When I ran AI lights I used the Saxby profile and everything did really well with it.

MugiwaraGrape · Jul 29, 2023

jabberwock said:
My lights start ramping up to blues from 10 am for four hours. Then about 4 hours of 80% full spectrum. Then 4 hours of ramping down to blues (12 hours). Check out my tank thread to see my setup. Consider tank depth and goals. My LFS rents a PAR meter. Your set up is gonna be adjustable...

I will definitely keep this in mind. Thank you!