How long do you run your lights?

[bawla47]

Would like to get a general consensus on lighting periods with everyone so my question is :

How long do you run your main photo period for in your fish tanks? (not including your dawn/dust actinics etc) Any input on personal experiences with running various periods is greatly apreciated. Let the poll begin!

[ROR]

With 400w bulbs I found 7 hours to be about right on my tank. Now that I use 250s 9 hours seems to be working out well.

[bolo7735]

I am running T5 and my main day lights run for 6 hours with good growth.

[Denadai]

8 hours all T5

[illal]

8 hrs 2x250w

[laud]

7 hours MH with 9 hours of actinics.

[Tswifty]

7 hours - 2 x 250 DE Metal Halide (no actinic supplementation)

[elijaher]

6 hours MH, 9 hours t5's

[dudley moray]

12 h t5

[dvmkv]

2x250 MH 8 hrs and t5 for 12hr

[jsw]

6 hrs with one 400w MH

[Adamg]

12hrs T-8... only 1w per gallon though

[bawla47]

6 hrs - 2x150 mhs

[MerDoX]

6 hours of T5s and 9 hours of Cree LEDs (actinic supp.)

[reefsic]

Running 8x54w T5 Fixture; 10hrs Actinics / 8hrs All other

[Stanley-Reefer]

12h pc actinics in both thanks

10h mh cycles in both tanks.

[scrapz]

5 hours. ati 6x54. anything more and the colors seem to wash out

[kraut3253]

Hmmm. I've been running my 2x400W 14K MH 11hrs a day on my 150G tank for years now. Maybe I should slowly back that down to 7 or 8 hrs.

[MCCOOL]

7 hours for t5 daylights, and 12 hours for t5 actinics

[sjfishguy]

11 hrs! that is a lot. A lot of people think that they must mimic the natural daylight at the equator and therefore think 12 of light is right. Keep in mind you only get 5-6hrs of really strong daylight even at the equator. As the sun gets lower in the sky a lot of the light is reflected off the water.

[Goodwood]

4 hours 8X54 T-5s....plenty of light

[surfjeepzx]

2 x 400 20k radiums @ 5 hrs each staggered. 10am - 3pm <<>> 1pm - 6pm. URI VHO 11 hrs 8am - 7pm. 1 center 250 10k ushio 8:30 am - 10am

[iamwrasseman]

i have cut all mine back from 11 total with the first and last two being actinics to 8 total and the same 2 begining and end and really havent seen any difference at all in my corals .some are MH with actinics and the other are 4 bulb ,2 14k and 2 actinic 54 watters .

[M King]

I have been running 2hr actinics 3hr MH 2hr actinics
3.5hr MH 2hr actinics. It is working good.

[offroadodge]

VHO SprActinics on at 12:00, T5's on at 12:10, 2-400wMH's on at 12:30 then start turning off at 9:30 pm/ MH 1st/T5's 2nd/ VHO last. kinda like the sun is going down and coming up.