Need advice on Reef Light Duration

[Thomas Jedlicka]

I am starting a reef tank, I am not new to saltwater but am to reef. How long should I set my lights for?

I have the Coralife Seascape LEDs 48”. It is on a standard Marineland 75gallon tank. I dont have any corals yet but am looking to try and figure out what my lights should be set to now.

The light settings I have on right now are 70% Blue, 30% white, and 40% red (rgb setting). There are 8 colors i can choose from for RGB setting.

How long and what times should I set the lights to be on for? I plan on doing easy corals like pulsating xenia

 

[Ron Reefman]

The zooxanthellae that live inside the coral can only do photosynthesis for 6 to 8 hours. More than that isn't harmful, but it isn't very helpful either. I always do a long 3 hour ramp for sunrise (more blue than anything, then 5 hours of midday at high power, then a 5 hour ramp down for sunset. I think the hour before midday and the hour after midday are bright enough to be used for photosynthesis.

I made midday with white power settings at 2/3rds of what the blue was (i.e. 90% blue and 55% white). Sunrise and sunset were much more blue at the beginning of the day and the end of the day.

 

[X-37B]

I run my 3 led systems at 1hr ramp up/down and 10hrs at peak.
12hrs total.