Lighting schedule for inverts/corals.

[TopClamSkoo]

Hey y'all

If I set my light schedule to turn on during mid afternoon until lil past midnight, will that affect my corals? During the dark period.. even with my curtains shut, there still is some light around the house.. wondering if I should just set the sunrise period to follow the natural sun.
Just worried my corals are not getting rest since there's so much light around the living room when it should be evening for them.
Hope this all makes sense.
I used to have my lights scheduled with the natural sun when my old job allowed me to be present at home more..

 

[Reef.]

Any fish?

I have my schedule similar to yours, I wrap my tank in blackout material, mainly for the fish, I have noticed the corals do move towards the daylight as soon as I uncover the tank, so I would definitely try and limit the light as they too need a dark period.

 

[TopClamSkoo]

No fish. No corals. Still setting everything up.

 

[Jekyl]

No fish. No corals. Still setting everything up.

Don't need light at all until you have coral. Then mimic a normal schedule. Think i have about 12 hours of lighting total with a ramp up, peak, ramp down.

 

[AydenLincoln]

12 hours is a lot of light in a new tank especially I’d say max of 8 and nowhere near 100% intensity and turn off the whites. Believe me when I say it will cause major algae in a new tank I learned the hard way. Use the acclimation setting and even better rent a PAR meter.