HELP PLEASE! Tank lighting schedule

J . · Feb 18, 2019

Hello reef2reef friends, I bought a 12 gallon jbj nano tank from craigslist. The previous owner had it for about 2yrs and I transported it with all the livestock (2 fish, 2 mushroom corals, 1 xenia). I am really confused on how to change/figure out what my lighting schedule should be. The tank is a JBJ 12 Gallon Nano Cube (https://www.marineandreef.com/JBJ_N...MIzP-Q-IfE4AIVLR6tBh1cfwNaEAQYAiABEgLngvD_BwE). It’s lighting has:

2 24W bulbs (Half 10K Day- light/ Half 7100K Actinic Blue and a nightlight LED.
1 custom blue actinic LED which they installed into the hood

The thing is that when I got the tank, the previous owner told me they used a cycle of blue actinic LEDs on at 6am for 2 hours then the white/actinic bulbs for 2 hours from 8-10 then blue actinic LEDs from 10-12pm. They’ve been doing this for a while seems to be ok on the corals but I’m not sure if 2 hours of the white/actinic bulbs enough. They were morning people but I want to change the schedule since I get home from work late around 5pm or 6pm so I can enjoy the aquarium in the evening. I was wondering what kind of schedule I can change to so I can have some viewing time of my tank I. The evening? The current schedule of 6 hours seems kind of limited. I was wondering if the current schedule has enough lighting for the tank? I’ve been reading lots of forums and have seen varying time schedules from 8hrs to 12hrs, some people turn on their white fluorescent lights for 4-6 hours during “high noon”, and other different combinations. I guess my main summary of questions would be:

How should I schedule my lighting (what combination/when I should turn on my lights/how long each)
How should I transition my corals to the new schedule? I have 2 mushroom corals and 1 pulsing xenia. The xenia seems to open up around 9 am and starts to shrink and become fat around 6pm (I believe this is the time I guess they consider sundown). I get home late from work so I was hoping to have at least the actinics around that time to enjoy my tank.

Any help is appreciated, I’m still a novice with saltwater. thanks in advance

-J

Neilth1 · Feb 18, 2019

bump up the lighting 2 hours for the mid day and put the start and end where ever you like it

FGourdin · Feb 18, 2019

Go ahead and shift to 8-10 hours of light per day and shift gradually over a week to start as late in the day as you like,ie, adjusted to your viewing time. A simple timer available at a big box store will facilitate that.

laverda · Feb 19, 2019

You want to simulate a natural light cycle. I woul have the LEDs come on first. Then the blue keeping it on and then add the white for mid day. Then reverse after that. The corals you have do not require much light. A 8 -10 light cycle should be plenty. You can have it offset so noon is at 6pm if you want.

J . · Mar 2, 2019

Neilth1 said:
bump up the lighting 2 hours for the mid day and put the start and end where ever you like it

Thanks, I started 2 hrs actinic, 4 hrs daylight and 2 hrs actinic

J . · Mar 2, 2019

FGourdin said:
Go ahead and shift to 8-10 hours of light per day and shift gradually over a week to start as late in the day as you like,ie, adjusted to your viewing time. A simple timer available at a big box store will facilitate that.

Thank you, I just got a timer and stet everything to 2hrs actinic, 4 hours daylight then 2 hrs actinic. It seems to be doing ok for now

J . · Mar 2, 2019

laverda said:
You want to simulate a natural light cycle. I woul have the LEDs come on first. Then the blue keeping it on and then add the white for mid day. Then reverse after that. The corals you have do not require much light. A 8 -10 light cycle should be plenty. You can have it offset so noon is at 6pm if you want.

Thanks for the advice, I gradually shifted everything so the blues come on at noon to simulate sunrise so I can run blue for 2 hrs then white for 4 then blue for 2 so I have more time to view them after work. However, I peek at the xenias around 7am and they have already opened up a bit and pulse but I was trying to have sunrise start around noon but guess they like to wake up early. I kept this light cycle for a week to test and the corals seem to be ok. Thanks for the help!