Reef Lighting Questions.

dickersondaniel19 · Sep 3, 2014

I recently started a saltwater tank... as of right now there is only live sand and water in it. I have live rock "Curing" I purchased the fluval sea marine and reef led light. I have questions, one, can it be placed on top of glass and two, it has a switch to go from full spectrum lighting to actinic lights. The instructions just say turn the actinic lights on at night. how long do i leave each one on? And what is the difference between the two? here is a link to the light specs
http://www.fluvalaquatics.com/ca/product/A3983-marine-reef-full-spectrum-performance-led-strip-light/#.VAfYtGSwLgI

ms705jk · Sep 4, 2014

The link for your lighting doesn't work.

dickersondaniel19 · Sep 4, 2014

ms705jk said:
The link for your lighting doesn't work.

You have to copy and paste the whole thing.... or you can google fluval sea marine and reef led light

Defective_Weeble · Sep 5, 2014

Welcome to the addiction!

First, to answer your question about the types of light: It appears that the Fluval runs full spectrum lighting during the "Day" setting, then actinic (blue) moonlights for the "Night" setting. Full spectrum will have blues, whites, reds and perhaps some greens to the LED setup. Generally speaking you'll want to run your full spectrum between 8 and 12 hours. The "night" setting, it appears, is just a few blue LEDs and can be left on all night long.

For mounting: Yes, you should be able to mount these directly onto the tank frame with the included mounts. Though be aware that the lower you mount them, the less "spread" that you'll have to your light and you may have some spotlighting effect.

Be forewarned - Depending on the tank that you're running, these lights may not be sufficient for certain types of corals. Namely light-hogging SPS. Soft corals and most LPS would likely be fine under them, again depending largely on the depth of the tank that you're running.