Light Cycle

[DraggingTail]

I am completely new to this. I currently have a 50 GAL tank that has cycled over the past 5 weeks. I started with 75lb of dead rock and a small dead piece of coral with live bacteria and coralline algae. I added 2 shrimp until I had ammonia and then a bottle of biospira.

Now, after the tank has cycled, I am starting with some snails and crab. I am also turning on the lights.

I have a 400 watt MH that is 36000 lumen and 4200K. See pic.

How many hours should I run my timer?

 

[James M]

8-12 hours light cycle

 

[Ron Reefman]

You really don't have anything in the tank yet that needs the light. So you could run it as long or as little as you like.

Running it longer at this point will probably help get your diatom bloom out of the way now that your tank is cycled. Almost everybody has a diatom bloom between being cycled and heading toward a mature tank. Don't fight it, let it run its course. It will use up its food and then die back and become more stable. The longer you run the light, the better your algae will grow. Other than that, you don't have anything in the tank that needs light. BTW, you might investigate switching to a higher K rated MH bulb when you replace the one you have. Yours will work OK, but a 12,000K or 20,000K bulb will make the colors in many of your corals fluoresce or 'pop' better.

After your tank is past the diatom bloom, and you start to add corals, they will need light so the zooxanthellae (algae) that lives inside the coral polyps can do photosynthesis (the coral itself doesn't do photosynthesis). The zooxanthellae will only do photosynthesis for about 4 to 6 hours and needs about 1 hour of good light to even get the process started. After the 4 to 6 hours of photosynthesis, the algae will shut down the process no matter how much light you provide. It's a genetic thing. Corals only get 5 to 7 hours of strong sunlight, and it's been that way for millions of years. It's not about to change in your aquarium.

On the other hand, the additional light, assuming you run more than 5 to 7 hours, probably does no harm. And it may allow coral to create more pigments that it uses to protect itself from too much light. Just like we turn red or tan if we get too much sun, corals create pigments (various colors) to protect themselves from too much light.

I collect a green zoa in the Florida Keys. I find it in very shallow water (2' to 5") so it gets quite a bit of strong light. In my tank under good leds they do just fine. But I moved a small colony up high in the tank on a branch of dead coral rock where it was only a few inches under the water surface and almost directly under the light. So it was getting very high PAR light. Over the course of about 4 to 6 weeks the zoas morphed from green with tan spokes on the face to a clear sky blue with no spokes of tan. People I sell excess coral (my grow out) to often ask if they can have a few heads of that blue zoa. I have to explain that it needs very intense light or it will morph back to being green. Then 90% of them realize they don't have anyplace in their tank that get enough light to keep them blue.

Hope that helps?

 

[DraggingTail]

You really don't have anything in the tank yet that needs the light. So you could run it as long or as little as you like.

Running it longer at this point will probably help get your diatom bloom out of the way now that your tank is cycled. Almost everybody has a diatom bloom between being cycled and heading toward a mature tank. Don't fight it, let it run its course. It will use up its food and then die back and become more stable. The longer you run the light, the better your algae will grow. Other than that, you don't have anything in the tank that needs light. BTW, you might investigate switching to a higher K rated MH bulb when you replace the one you have. Yours will work OK, but a 12,000K or 20,000K bulb will make the colors in many of your corals fluoresce or 'pop' better.

After your tank is past the diatom bloom, and you start to add corals, they will need light so the zooxanthellae (algae) that lives inside the coral polyps can do photosynthesis (the coral itself doesn't do photosynthesis). The zooxanthellae will only do photosynthesis for about 4 to 6 hours and needs about 1 hour of good light to even get the process started. After the 4 to 6 hours of photosynthesis, the algae will shut down the process no matter how much light you provide. It's a genetic thing. Corals only get 5 to 7 hours of strong sunlight, and it's been that way for millions of years. It's not about to change in your aquarium.

On the other hand, the additional light, assuming you run more than 5 to 7 hours, probably does no harm. And it may allow coral to create more pigments that it uses to protect itself from too much light. Just like we turn red or tan if we get too much sun, corals create pigments (various colors) to protect themselves from too much light.

I collect a green zoa in the Florida Keys. I find it in very shallow water (2' to 5") so it gets quite a bit of strong light. In my tank under good leds they do just fine. But I moved a small colony up high in the tank on a branch of dead coral rock where it was only a few inches under the water surface and almost directly under the light. So it was getting very high PAR light. Over the course of about 4 to 6 weeks the zoas morphed from green with tan spokes on the face to a clear sky blue with no spokes of tan. People I sell excess coral (my grow out) to often ask if they can have a few heads of that blue zoa. I have to explain that it needs very intense light or it will morph back to being green. Then 90% of them realize they don't have anyplace in their tank that get enough light to keep them blue.

Hope that helps?

Thanks. This is exactly what I was looking for. I need algae for the snails and crabs. I have about 20 now but will be adding another 80. The 20 I have now have all found my live rock and are eating all the corraline algae

 

[vetteguy53081]

start low and gradually build hours of lighting as you add livestock.

 

[DraggingTail]

How long until I will get the algae bloom?

 

[vetteguy53081]

12 or more hours will contrbute cto algae

 

[Ron Reefman]

How long until I will get the algae bloom?

There's no guarantee you'll even get an algae bloom, or a diatom bloom or a bacterial bloom, but then it is possible and some new tanks go through more than one. As for timing, that's near impossible to pin down other than to say sometime after your tank is cycled and before 2 to 6 months. IMHO it's likely sooner rather than later. And it depends on so many factors. How did you cycle the tank?, Does your tank have livestock in it now, and what kind of livestock, and how much livestock? Are you feeding the livestock and how much? Are you doing water changes and how big a percentage of the water gets changed? You get the idea, right? There are just too many variables.

The good news is that none of the blooms is permanent and over the course of a week or two they usually go away pretty much on there own. The reason for the bloom is because there is too much of 'something' in your system and nature will find a way to get it used. But once the algae or bacteria start to use it, it will start to reproduce, and reproduce some more, and some more, and so on and so on. Finally it will reproduce to the point that there isn't enough of whatever it's using for food and the bloom will die back and almost go away. It may not go away completely as it will always be there to use up whatever small amount of that food was that it uses. But it shouldn't be so much that you see it as a problem. Sometimes it will , in fact, use up all the food, and if you aren't adding more (through feeding, or something in your water changes or whatever) it may go away completely.

A small amount of CUC or even a fish or two aren't a problem during the bloom. In fact algae eaters can be useful. But don't add corals until the tank is more stable. Corals don't tend to do well with algae blooms or diatom blooms or bacterial blooms. They don't like the water parameter changes and they don't like getting a coating of algae. Fish, hermit crabs, snails can all deal with it better.

Keep asking questions and good luck... oh, and welcome to the addiction!

 

[DraggingTail]

There's no guarantee you'll even get an algae bloom, or a diatom bloom or a bacterial bloom, but then it is possible and some new tanks go through more than one. As for timing, that's near impossible to pin down other than to say sometime after your tank is cycled and before 2 to 6 months. IMHO it's likely sooner rather than later. And it depends on so many factors. How did you cycle the tank?, Does your tank have livestock in it now, and what kind of livestock, and how much livestock? Are you feeding the livestock and how much? Are you doing water changes and how big a percentage of the water gets changed? You get the idea, right? There are just too many variables.

The good news is that none of the blooms is permanent and over the course of a week or two they usually go away pretty much on there own. The reason for the bloom is because there is too much of 'something' in your system and nature will find a way to get it used. But once the algae or bacteria start to use it, it will start to reproduce, and reproduce some more, and some more, and so on and so on. Finally it will reproduce to the point that there isn't enough of whatever it's using for food and the bloom will die back and almost go away. It may not go away completely as it will always be there to use up whatever small amount of that food was that it uses. But it shouldn't be so much that you see it as a problem. Sometimes it will , in fact, use up all the food, and if you aren't adding more (through feeding, or something in your water changes or whatever) it may go away completely.

A small amount of CUC or even a fish or two aren't a problem during the bloom. In fact algae eaters can be useful. But don't add corals until the tank is more stable. Corals don't tend to do well with algae blooms or diatom blooms or bacterial blooms. They don't like the water parameter changes and they don't like getting a coating of algae. Fish, hermit crabs, snails can all deal with it better.

Keep asking questions and good luck... oh, and welcome to the addiction!

Is this algae?

 

[DraggingTail]

Here is what my tank looks like. The light seems awfully bright. How do I get the blue look?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Oops! See post below. ;Facepalm;Inpain;Meh;Nailbiting;Stop

 

[Ron Reefman]

Is this algae?

It might help if you could tell us what 'this' is? Do you mean the yellowish discoloration on the rocks? Or the purple rock(?) on top of the other rocks? Or what appears to be a bit of green at the top rear of the purple rock?

I'm going to assume you mean what looks yellow in the photo. Is that algae? IMHO it is a kind of algae called diatoms and it's very common for new tanks that have recently finished the nitrogen cycle to have a diatom bloom. So far, if this is as bad as yours has been, it looks quite mild. Just let it run it's course for the next week or two. It may get worse, but eventually it will use up it's food source and die way back.

Here is what my tank looks like. The light seems awfully bright. How do I get the blue look?

Same issue here, you aren't giving us nearly enough info to work with.

You haven't even told us if it's a MH (Metal Halide) or a t5 fluorescent or and led fixture!

It would be a big help a if you told us what make and model of light fixture you're running? Even better would be to add a link to some specs about your fixture so we don't all have to go looking for info about the fixture.

Some fixtures (MH &t5 fluorescents) need different bulbs to make light that is more blue. Some fixtures (leds and hybrids) have the ability to be adjusted to be more blue. But without having any idea of what you have, it's hard to offer constructive help.

 

[DraggingTail]

It might help if you could tell us what 'this' is? Do you mean the yellowish discoloration on the rocks? Or the purple rock(?) on top of the other rocks? Or what appears to be a bit of green at the top rear of the purple rock?

I'm going to assume you mean what looks yellow in the photo. Is that algae? IMHO it is a kind of algae called diatoms and it's very common for new tanks that have recently finished the nitrogen cycle to have a diatom bloom. So far, if this is as bad as yours has been, it looks quite mild. Just let it run it's course for the next week or two. It may get worse, but eventually it will use up it's food source and die way back.



Same issue here, you aren't giving us nearly enough info to work with.

You haven't even told us if it's a MH (Metal Halide) or a t5 fluorescent or and led fixture!

It would be a big help a if you told us what make and model of light fixture you're running? Even better would be to add a link to some specs about your fixture so we don't all have to go looking for info about the fixture.

Some fixtures (MH &t5 fluorescents) need different bulbs to make light that is more blue. Some fixtures (leds and hybrids) have the ability to be adjusted to be more blue. But without having any idea of what you have, it's hard to offer constructive help.

It's from another project.

 

[DraggingTail]

It's from another project.

Pics

 

[DraggingTail]

Pics

Hood

 

[KingLucy1997]

8-12 hours light cycle

What about dark cycle? Or do you just do half light half dark in the cycle so it would be 4-6 hours of light a day and 4-6 hour dark cycle? Im over thinking this

 

[vetteguy53081]

Typical is 7a-10p of light…… rest is dark period

 

[bReefedBaker]

Typical is 7a-10p of light…… rest is dark period

My schedule right here — +1

 

[James M]

What about dark cycle? Or do you just do half light half dark in the cycle so it would be 4-6 hours of light a day and 4-6 hour dark cycle? Im over thinking this

12 hours of light …..12 hours of darkness