LED Lighting schedule

Lazarus1960 · May 24, 2020

Hi all. Question regarding LED lighting schedule. I have no experience with LED lighting as i have previously only ever used halides or T's. Anyway recently got a new tank after many years away. Nice little nano, nothing special but will look nice eventually. The lighting system i have is an LED that gives me several preset options but they are just constant. I can however set a custom schedule up (which i have, sort of) I have 3 lights (so to speak) 1 White and 2 blue (one brighter than the other and 1 seems to be ALL blue, the other mixed colours). I can set them individually from 0-100% in whatever combination i want and for whatever length of time i want etc. They are nothing fancy so its difficult to find any real info on them and i have only found a couple of posts elsewhere with some basic lighting shedules. I know this may sound very vague but im in the dark and just playing this by ear so to speak, its all trial and error. I will post the 2 variations i have found and if anybody can either confirm these would be OK or recommend something a would be greatfull.

W=WHITE, BL = ALL BLUE (BRIGHTER), B = BLUE (MIX NOT AS BRIGHT)

VESRION 1 %

6-7 = W2, BL2, B2
7-9 = W30, BL50, B30
9-15 = W65, BL80, B40
15-19 = W40, BL65, B20
19-21- 30 = W0, BL20, B0

VERSION 2 %

6-8 = W1, BL7, B3
8-10 = W7, BL15, B15
10-16 = W28, BL32, B18
16-19 = W10, BL24, B7
19-21-30 = W0, BL15, B0

As you can see, very different and version 1 gives a lot more white light (brighter overall). I currently have a BTA , a few Zoa's and a small patch of GSP. Any advice greatfully received

Thanks Garry

Ron Reefman · May 24, 2020

Welcome to Reef2Reef Garry.

OK, your tank is a nano. How deep is it (water surface to sand or bottom)?
Do you know the brand name of the fixture?
Is it built into the plastic lid for the tank?
Any idea how many watts the leds are (individually or in total)? How many leds total?

At first blush, I'd go with option #1.
I assume the 9-15 in the left column is 9am to 3pm?

At the start of running this tank, it doesn't matter much what you do. Even when fish and CUC get added, it still doesn't matter much. Once you start to add corals, you want more blue than white and that's what you get with #1.

The first and last setting (sunrise & sunset) you can pretty much do whatever you want as there isn't enough light for the coral's zooxanthellae (algae) to be doing photosynthesis. If you like the blue light that makes the corals fluoresce, that's fine. If you like it more white just because it looks better to your eyes, that's fine as well.

But during the 3 midday setting, blue is the important spectrum. Most, not all, but most of the photosynthesis the zooxanthellae will do is as a result of the blue spectrum. Terrestrial plants and most aquatic plants use red for photosynthesis, but the zooxanthellae inside corals are different, so blue matters. Then add as much white as you want the get the tank to an overall shade you're happy with.

How high you set you power levels is dependent on how deep your tank is, how many leds there are in total, and how powerful they are (wattage). Answer those questions and we may be able to help with advice on power levels.

Good luck and have fun.

Lazarus1960 · May 24, 2020

Thanks for the reply. The light is chinese made (it all came with the tank somebody was getting rid of) and ive searched as much as i can without any luck to find any specs. As much as i can tell you is the light is suspended about 6" above the surface and the depth from water to sand is about 14". the tank overall is 28 x 18 x 16" deep. The light has 26 LED's but wattage i dont know. I am currently running at setup no 1 at the moment as I figured the blue was more important. Sorry its a vague question and understand its difficult to answer

Ron Reefman · May 24, 2020

How about a photo of the led fixture.
Is there a power supply in the cord to the light? Any chance it has some output specs?

I suspect that given the shallow depth of the tank, those settings will be OK.

Lazarus1960 · May 24, 2020

Ron Reefman said:
How about a photo of the led fixture.
Is there a power supply in the cord to the light? Any chance it has some output specs?

I suspect that given the shallow depth of the tank, those settings will be OK.

No stickers or info on the unit I can see, tried to upload images but says too big to upload