Lighting LR

[Radioheed]

I have had about 10 lbs of uncured (i think) LR in my 20g to start my cycle. I have current 2x65 pc's.


how long should I leave the lights on for?


is it true that actinics encourage coraline growth? if so should I only run/run them more often?


Thanks in advance

[sir_dudeguy]

i've never heard that actinics encourage coraline. At least they dont for me (i always forget to turn them off :) )
But to get coraline, you need calcium and mag in the right levels.

And you dont have to run the lights right now anyways. Rock doesnt need any light. Its only the corals that are on rocks that need light, and if you dont have any corals, then you dont need lights.

But if you're asking how long you can have them on because you like to look at the tank (like i do lol) then i'd say 6 tops during a cycle. During the cycle, theres lots of amonia, nitrite, and nitrates, which is what algae eats...if you leave the lights on for very long, thats only gonna help the algae a ton, and it will go out of control once it starts growing.

[jerehmy]

I would try and do at least 6 hrs, the LR may have "hitch=hikers" which can be cool corals which may need the light.

Sometimes a polyp can be sooooo small you can't even see it, then in a few months that single polyp can make HUGE colonys

Save the life, use your lights

[Radioheed]

don't think there is too much going on on this LR, so I'm not too worried about the growth...I just got this stuff from my lfs, I'll be adding 10 more lbs from TBS soon


Thanks for the advice, I'll keep it at 6 hrs. By the way I had never heard the actinic thing either, someone on here sais it.

[jerehmy]

some people on here don't know there head from there as.. welll nevermind.

Just don't believe everything you read unless the same thing is said by mutiple and I mean mutiple people.

Some info is really really good just make sure to filter out the crap