Hi everyone I was wondering how long I should run my lights on my biocube. I currently run the compact white fluorescent and the actinic compact fluorescent from 7am to 9pm then my blue led from 9 pm to 7am. How long should i run it?
Biocube 29 gallon lighting
- Thread starter Mike628
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ksfulk
Working back towards clean
Typical photo period would depend on what you are keeping in the tank. If its just fish, then 12 on, 12 off is fine. If you have corals, then you might need to adjust your photo period. It also depends on what kind of coral. Typically any coral will eventually adjust to the photo period that you have in your tank, but it may stunt growth for some time.
Also, you'll want to give the inhabitants some time with no lights on. This resting phase allows for some biological proccesses to occur more easily than if the lights are constantly on. This is particularily important for coral. Fish tend to spook easier (and therefore tend to jump more) when lights are on 24/7. If you are already running 7am to 9pm with your standard lights I would cut it back down to 10-12 hours of whites/actnics and then give yourself an hour or two before and after with the leds. This gives your tank inhabitants a "wake up" and "settle down" time in your tank. Adjust to your own schedule, so you can see your tank when you are home. I would do something like this:
7am LEDs on
9am Whites/Actnics on
7-8pm White/Actnics off
9-10pm LEDs off
Good Luck!
ksfulk
Working back towards clean
When I had my cube, I ran the lights 12 on and 12 off. The corals didnt grow very much (but I was also not the best at husbandry at that time), but when I ramped the lights down a little bit I saw calmer fish and more growth. Eventually I took the lids off of the cube and used a Kessil light, which looked really sleek. Here's an old picture of my cube when I had it up and running. That torch was only one head for about a year when I was running my lights much like you are. Once I ramped it down (and gave the coral a "no light period" at night, I saw an explosion of growth. Thats just my experience, but I think that most reef keepers dont keep their lights on more than 12 hours a day.
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Mike628
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Thank you. I was told yesterday that the amount of time im leaving my lights on is too long. So I bought a timer and set it for the white and actinic to be on from 7am to 3pm. Then I think I will have a "no light peropd" from 3pm - 9pm then turn on my leds. Does this sound kind of right?
Rjramos
Valuable Member
I have a biocube 29 and upgraded to RapidLED from the dual PC it comes with. I did run the PC's for a while for about 10hr/day. The biggest problem I found with the PC's was temperature, it would get as high as 82 with a room temp of 78. I would upgrade from Stock PC's if you can.
