I have a 90 gallon tank with 95 lbs of live rock and my cleanup crew I have had the tank set up for about 3 1/2 months now and have added a few corals in the past 4 weeks and my water levels are good. I recently had a Lobo bleach and I removed it from the tank. I have a Marineland Double Bright LED light and I wanted to know when I should have the white and blue lights on, and just the blue lights on. Do I turn the light off completely at any time during the day? Please let me know the proper lighting cycle for a reef tank and also if you have any recommendations for better lightning. Thank you.
Lighting Cycle
- Thread starter Dubbies24
- Start date
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henrysreef
New Member
Around 8am my blue lights come on, 9am the white lights. At 6pm the white lights go off and the blue lights go off at 7pm. The lunar leds are on during the night. I have a aquacticlife t5H0 setup for my 125 gallon and it works great. Everything is on a timer and there is only one power cord. I am not sure that the double bright leds have enough power to properly house and grow corals.
Zeither18
Community Member
My lights are on from 10a to 9p due to my work schedule. If not I wouldn't ever see the tank let alone play with it. I run my actinic an hour before my metal halides start to turn on. One halide turns on every 20 min and the same to shut down with a total of three. How are the corals doing with the double brights? I was looking into the marineland reef capable leds but they only use 1w leds and figured they would be enough beings that every other fixture for coral runs 3w leds. I think they were like 2600 lumens for a 36" fixture as compared to like 7000 lumens with others.
Shelby2012
Community Member
I have Marineland Reef Capable LED 24-36" on my 29g tank and I can admit now that it is not enough. To find a place even for less demanding corals is difficult. You need to move the frag arouhnd the tank untill you find a well lit spot. My zoas were almost at the bottom and always searching for light. I decided to buy extra Ecoxotic Pro 12k/453 blue module and it is sooo bright and my corals are finally happy. I already ordered another blue only module from Ecoxotic and it will arrive tomorrow. I think I will get rid of Marineland alltogether.
Eggs
Well-Known Member
I don't have LED's, but I run actinics from 11am-10pm and metal halides from 1:30pm-7:30pm
I wasn't in this position when I started a reef so maybe someone can verify, but I wonder if the tank/system is too new for corals?
I wasn't in this position when I started a reef so maybe someone can verify, but I wonder if the tank/system is too new for corals?
Zeither18
Community Member
I had my tank cycled for only a few months and added some easier beginner corals. (green star polyps and a couple zoas) and they are doing great. Everything is open and I even have some growth. I think as long as the water parameters are good then u can start with a little something as long as u don't rush and fill the tank. Just my opinion though
Marineland LEDs are not reef capable, even though it's in the name. I would upgrade to a better fixture. As for lights, I never have just actinict lights, my fish go CRAZY hiding, and my clownfish fight each other, basically survival mode. Instead, use a dimmable fixture, my fixture dims gradually at night, until it reaches about 20K color at 11%, then goes off. No stress, and the fish love it, they know when night is coming, and when they are going to be fed based on light levels.
