how long led lights should be on?

[reefnoob616]

I have a 30inch tall 220g tank. I have a 165w on each side and a 300w in the middle. Right now I am at a schedule of 11:30 blues come on 12:30 all on. Whites go out at 8:30 and blues go out at 10. Everything seems to be doing good but I do have some slight cyanobacteria growing mainly on sand and a little on a flat shelf. Reef octo skimmer running, phosban reactor running, filtersock, and built in refuge with cheto, pink baby macro and purple c something. With a 120w led on when display is out.
I guess what im saying is I need feedback for my whole setup.

 

[mainereefer]

I run my lights 3pm blue on 4pm white on 9pm white off 10:30 blue off 7 1/2 hrs is plenty of light

 

[reefnoob616]

 

[mike007]

That sounds like a great photoperiod you have. I run mine about the same.

 

[TJ's Reef]

With high output lighting LED/MH/T5 you can probably get away with 8-9 hours but if your trying to match nature then think about where these animals come from and you'll see that 11-13 hours of daylight year round in the Tropics, not the seasonal differences most of us receive. My first (right end) circuit starts to Ramp-up at 7:45 am followed every 20 minutes moving left six times to last circuit fully on at 9:45 am then at end of day first circuit starts Ramp-down at 6:45 pm and last one off at 8:45 pm in an East-to-West movement giving an overall 13 hour lighting schedule.

Cheers, Todd

 

[ritter6788]

With high output lighting LED/MH/T5 you can probably get away with 8-9 hours but if your trying to match nature then think about where these animals come from and you'll see that 11-13 hours of daylight year round in the Tropics, not the seasonal differences most of us receive. My first (right end) circuit starts to Ramp-up at 7:45 am followed every 20 minutes moving left six times to last circuit fully on at 9:45 am then at end of day first circuit starts Ramp-down at 6:45 pm and last one off at 8:45 pm in an East-to-West movement giving an overall 13 hour lighting schedule.

Cheers, Todd

Same here. Mine are on over 12 hours everyday with the blues coming on 1 hour before the whites and off one hour after whites. I've experimented with photoperiods and my alk and calcium demand decreases with shorter photoperiods which means less growth. I've never gone over 14 hours though.

 

[gobeach]

Tagging along for some thoughts on my photoperiod as well. I've recently changed my lighting periods because I believe I had too high and too long of a period. i've got Sunbrite F00015 Series. The numbers below are in percentages, I have all colors at the same percentage except for the moonlight where I keep the blues at 2%. I also use the dimming feature so the lights gradually transition from one setting to the other

0600 - 0900 5%
0900 - 1200 10%
1200 - 1500 20%
1500 - 1700 30%
1700 - 2200 10%
2200 - 2400 Moonlight (2% blue only)
2400 - 0600 1% blue only