How long to burn lights?

[TideReefer]

I have T5's. I currently burn day lights for about 9hrs, blue or antic for 4 hours and moon lights for 9 hours. My lights are never completely off. What is the ideal times for lights. I'm thinking of changing my times, because when I like to look at my tank the most in the evenings it's daylight most of the time and my colors are not great. I would appreciate any opinions on this subject. Still learning what's best.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

The colors of your corals really depend on the color temperature of your bulbs. Someone here should be able to tell you a good combination of bulbs. I am not too familiar with T5 bulbs except for those for fresh water planted tanks. ATI blue+ has been very popular, but it needs to be combined with Fiji pink or something to produce more appealing colors. I loved the T5 bulb combination that Dave3112 was using. It had 14,000K look almost identical to Phoenix 14,000K MH bulbs.

I am sure others will chime in soon.

 

[TideReefer]

Ok thanks.

 

[tigerdragon]

I have an ati 6 bulb t5 i run 1 aqua blue special, 3 blue +, 1 coral+, and 1 purple plus and augment with a 450nm blue led strip. Led ramps up to full pwr starting at 6am 2 t5 bulbs which are b+ come on at 8am, rest of fixture on at 10am, 4 bulbs down at 6pm, 2 blue+ down at 8pm, led ramps down at 10:30pm.

 

[TideReefer]

So from 10:30pm til 6am you have no lights on?

 

[tigerdragon]

Yep lets everything rest. Only lights are in the fuge

 

[TideReefer]

Ok thanks

 

[tigerdragon]

Look at ocean there isnt any noticeable light at night

 

[Tomoko Schum]

When I was using MH lights, I used to have them turn on at 3:30 pm to 10:30 pm mainly to avoid the hottest time of the day in summer. I also like to view my tanks in the evening after work. I believe fish and corals need some dark period to stay healthy. I don't know when corals really rest since I see them feeding and harpooning each other in the dark...

 

[H@rry]

When I had MH and VHO actinics I turned the actinincs on, 2 hours later MH on, 8 hours later MH off, and 2 hours later actines off. The actincs were on for 12 hours and MH for 8 hours.
It does not matter what time of day you run them so you will have the look you want when you have the time to look at them.

 

[TrishW]

I ran a six bulb T5 fixture on my 90. I got great growth and color with ATI bulbs. I ran this combo.

Bulbs 1 & 6 blue plus - on two hours before and after the other four bulbs giving me a 12 hour light cycle

bulbs 2 & 5 coral plus - bulbs 2 thru 5 ran for eight hours per day
bulb 3 purple plus
bulb 4 blue plus

I think this combo of T5s outperformed the LEDs I have now but the cost of bulb replacement and the fact that I was going to have to buy a new fixture because I got a longer tank is the only reason I made the switch.

 

[TideReefer]

Ok thanks

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I recall David Miller (dave3112) was running a combination very simpler to Trish's.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I meant to say similar...

 

[mlewandowski61]

I pretty much do the same as H@rry. Maybe just a lttle longer at the end on the Atinics so I can get a little longer pleasure viewing