Lighting

[Obscure]

I am trying to stick to 8 hours a day of light in my tank per day. I am thinking of achieving it in the means of putting the lights on a timer to run from 8am to noon, and 3pm to 7pm. 4 hour break in the middle of the day. The reason for this is so that the lights are on at the times that I am at home and not just during the day when I am not there.

Is this a bad idea? Would this negatively affect my tank?

 

[TX_REEF]

depends what you have in your tank. Fish only, probably not an issue as they will get used to it. I think corals will generally appreciate a more natural-replicating light cycle. What times are you home? You can start and end your light cycle whenever you wish, for example mine runs noon to 10pm. It doesn't have to follow the sun.

 

[phillyb614]

IMO, it always best to try duplicate Mother Nature in this hobby. I could be wrong. Just my initial thought.

 

[rtparty]

12 hours per day with a 1 hour ramp up and 1 hour ramp down is just fine. That will allow you to run the lights while you are home and not mess with anything by turning lights off midday

 

[Obscure]

depends what you have in your tank. Fish only, probably not an issue as they will get used to it. I think corals will generally appreciate a more natural-replicating light cycle. What times are you home? You can start and end your light cycle whenever you wish, for example mine runs noon to 10pm. It doesn't have to follow the sun.

Currently have no fish in the tank for now, only have LPS corals. Makes sense what you say the corals would prefer a natural lighting sequence so I may let the lights just start later because I will appreciate it later in the evening rather than the morning. I work 7am to roughly 4pm.

 

[Obscure]

Thanks everyone so far looks like the general preference is to NOT turn lights off midday so I will rather drop the idea.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I would try to keep the lighting period without the break up. If you want to turn the lights off at 10 pm for example, then run them from 2 to 10.

 

[PharmrJohn]

With the 8 hour total sun up time, are you trying to minimize potential algae growth? Or was that something you picked up somewhere?

 

[Obscure]

With the 8 hour total sun up time, are you trying to minimize potential algae growth? Or was that something you picked up somewhere?

Yes you are spot on, it's to minimize algae growth.

 

[WvAquatics]

Following along i was thinking about doing split light schedule also this way I can view the tank when I'm up and not while at work. But research isn't giving good info besides most say don't so it