Lighting on mixed reef

dweebiii · 11/21/2016, 01:21 PM

My 120g reef/fish tank is 24x24x48.

My main light is this AquaticLife 44" LED
https://www.aquaticlife.com/aquatic-...-fixtures.html

I just added two LED strips, one in Deepwater Blue (453mm actinic) and the other white/blue 12K White/Actinic Blue Marine Fusion:

How many hours a day would you run them? Of course, the Aquaticlife strip is programmable, so I can adjust percentage of blue and percentage of white.

Also looking for the percentage white/blue. Any advice would be appreciated.

MrDaniel · 11/21/2016, 03:24 PM

What types of corals do you hope to keep in your tank? The lighting requirements vary significantly. As there are probably fewer users who have experience with your specific light, I would suggest figuring out the total wattage of the LED's and comparing them to other brands like AI or EcoTech. There is a huge amount of information and even lighting schedules available for these brands that you could implement with your aquaticlife light.

dweebiii · 11/22/2016, 11:19 AM

Corals: I have a variety of Zoas, LPS and SPS. Frogspawn, elegance, and now a few montis/chalices.

75mixedreef · 11/22/2016, 01:26 PM

With LEDs it can be really hard to tell, you might want to start with around 5 hours of full spectrum and 10-12 hour of blue lights. It sounds like you have been running the aquaticlife already, did you need more light in your tank or more coverage? You might just want to match your current light schedule and dim your fixture to compensate. I assume you have 2 different schedules for blue and one for full spectrum. If not then just use the blues for sunrise/sunset beyond your fixture, and your 12K lights for high noon. That way you will have 3 different lighting levels that will get brighter and whiter during the day then the opposite in the evening.

As far as what to set your fixture to and how long to keep the lights on, that depends on the lights themselves and how your corals react. The coloring is a bit of a personal choice, so you need to decide that for yourself. You do not want to increase your lighting by a whole lot to begin with so I'd start but setting the 2 strips to what you want them at and don't mess with them afterward unless you just want to fine tune the schedule to fit your day. Then just look at what the tank looks like at different parts of the light cycle and adjust the color until you are happy.

The acclimation to the new lights should be done though your fixture since that is going to be the easiest to adjust and changing the one fixture is going to make it simpler. Start with the lights lower and try to target about the same amount of light that your corals are getting on average throughout the day less is better when in doubt. Then slowly ramp up the lighting over the next couple weeks. If the corals look stressed at all, lower the lights to the last setting and give them a few days or a week to recover. I would probably wait a day or two between each increase in the lighting to not stress them out.

11/21/2016, 01:21 PM	#1
dweebiii Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2015 Location: Northern Colorado Posts: 26	Lighting on mixed reef My 120g reef/fish tank is 24x24x48. My main light is this AquaticLife 44" LED https://www.aquaticlife.com/aquatic-...-fixtures.html I just added two LED strips, one in Deepwater Blue (453mm actinic) and the other white/blue 12K White/Actinic Blue Marine Fusion: How many hours a day would you run them? Of course, the Aquaticlife strip is programmable, so I can adjust percentage of blue and percentage of white. Also looking for the percentage white/blue. Any advice would be appreciated.

11/21/2016, 03:24 PM	#2
MrDaniel Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 51	What types of corals do you hope to keep in your tank? The lighting requirements vary significantly. As there are probably fewer users who have experience with your specific light, I would suggest figuring out the total wattage of the LED's and comparing them to other brands like AI or EcoTech. There is a huge amount of information and even lighting schedules available for these brands that you could implement with your aquaticlife light.

11/22/2016, 11:19 AM	#3
dweebiii Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2015 Location: Northern Colorado Posts: 26	Corals: I have a variety of Zoas, LPS and SPS. Frogspawn, elegance, and now a few montis/chalices.

11/22/2016, 01:26 PM	#4
75mixedreef Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2016 Posts: 255	With LEDs it can be really hard to tell, you might want to start with around 5 hours of full spectrum and 10-12 hour of blue lights. It sounds like you have been running the aquaticlife already, did you need more light in your tank or more coverage? You might just want to match your current light schedule and dim your fixture to compensate. I assume you have 2 different schedules for blue and one for full spectrum. If not then just use the blues for sunrise/sunset beyond your fixture, and your 12K lights for high noon. That way you will have 3 different lighting levels that will get brighter and whiter during the day then the opposite in the evening. As far as what to set your fixture to and how long to keep the lights on, that depends on the lights themselves and how your corals react. The coloring is a bit of a personal choice, so you need to decide that for yourself. You do not want to increase your lighting by a whole lot to begin with so I'd start but setting the 2 strips to what you want them at and don't mess with them afterward unless you just want to fine tune the schedule to fit your day. Then just look at what the tank looks like at different parts of the light cycle and adjust the color until you are happy. The acclimation to the new lights should be done though your fixture since that is going to be the easiest to adjust and changing the one fixture is going to make it simpler. Start with the lights lower and try to target about the same amount of light that your corals are getting on average throughout the day less is better when in doubt. Then slowly ramp up the lighting over the next couple weeks. If the corals look stressed at all, lower the lights to the last setting and give them a few days or a week to recover. I would probably wait a day or two between each increase in the lighting to not stress them out.