How many hrs of light a day?

[EllisJuan]

I have 65g tank with a coralife 2x150 MH fixture running Phoenix 14k bulbs. How many hours a day should I have the tank lit. Also I installed a small 3 LED lunar light into the fixture, should this be running all the time when my MH lights are off? Does the tank ever need complete darkness?

Thanks

[Michael]

It would depend whats in the tank, could be anything between 8-12 hours really, what have you got in there?

[EllisJuan]

It would depend whats in the tank, could be anything between 8-12 hours really, what have you got in there?

The tank is freshly cycled with no coral yet. Just 60lbs of rock, 2 Clowns, 4 blue/chromis, and a peppermint cleaner shrimp.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd214/TahoeDust/a8504aa6.jpg

[Toddrtrex]

My tanks have MH and supplemental lights. I run the MH's for 6 hours and the supplemental lights for 11 hours.

[saltymight]

I have t-5 HO . I do 12 hours of blue attinic. and than 10 hours of day light. than my sump runs the bulbs for 12 hours reverse of the attinic so at night. I simulate the moon with moons light running from 11pm until about 5 am about 2 hours after the attinics are off

[EllisJuan]

My tanks have MH and supplemental lights. I run the MH's for 6 hours and the supplemental lights for 11 hours.

I have t-5 HO . I do 12 hours of blue attinic. and than 10 hours of day light. than my sump runs the bulbs for 12 hours reverse of the attinic so at night. I simulate the moon with moons light running from 11pm until about 5 am about 2 hours after the attinics are off

This is one of the things that kind of has me confused. In my previous setups I had separate actinics and whites and staggered the on off times so it always went actinics>Both>actinics over about a 12 hr period. Now with no actinics and powerful/hot MH lights I was not sure how many hrs a day I should be running them.

[DoubleM 10]

IMO you should supliment the MH with the 20W up to 39W acitinics to simulate a night and day cycle.

but thats just me

matt

[EllisJuan]

IMO you should supliment the MH with the 20W up to 39W acitinics to simulate a night and day cycle.

but thats just me

matt

That would be ideal, but I am really now wanting to buy another fixture to run actinics. My MH fixture takes up most of the space above my tank.

[Toddrtrex]

There was a period of time that I ran my 33 with just MH (( ended up getting a PC fixture for supplemental )), and I ran it is for 8 hours. You could start there, and see how things work out -- but, would wait at least 3 weeks before changing it, just to see how things react.

[EllisJuan]

Does anyone know of a 36" fixture that would be narrow and could be used for actinic supplements?

[EllisJuan]

The only one I have found is ~$100...seems kind of steep for 1 T5. It is a Hagen Glo...andy opinions or experiences with them?



Mods: Feel free to move this to the lighting forum if you think it is better suited there.