Hours of light

aqua_man7010 · 04/29/2014, 10:01 AM

I've read various articles, stating that corals in the wild, only receive about 6 hours of intense light per day, and on cloudy days, even less. I've decided to run my lighting for 5 hours per day. Over my main tank (48" x24") I have three (3) Ecotech Radions, all set on enhanced growth, and over my frag tank (24" x 24") I have two AI Hydras, running all colors 100%.

Has anyone else done this? What results did you get, and is this enough artificial light to promote coral health. My thought is, running the lights less will result in less algae accumulation on the aquarium glass.

zoomonster · 04/29/2014, 10:24 AM

Well I don't know what if any controller you have but ideally I would run a daily adjusted schedule based off some reef area of the world i.e. Fiji adjusted to your time zone with varying light levels through the day i.e. sunrise, midday, sunset and moon.

If you want less algae deal with nitrate and phosphate levels.

thegrun · 04/29/2014, 10:44 AM

I ramp up for 4 hours, maintain maximum intensity for 4 hours and then ramp down for 4 hours.

04/29/2014, 10:01 AM	#1
aqua_man7010 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Maryland Posts: 12	Hours of light I've read various articles, stating that corals in the wild, only receive about 6 hours of intense light per day, and on cloudy days, even less. I've decided to run my lighting for 5 hours per day. Over my main tank (48" x24") I have three (3) Ecotech Radions, all set on enhanced growth, and over my frag tank (24" x 24") I have two AI Hydras, running all colors 100%. Has anyone else done this? What results did you get, and is this enough artificial light to promote coral health. My thought is, running the lights less will result in less algae accumulation on the aquarium glass.

04/29/2014, 10:24 AM	#2
zoomonster Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Central Florida Posts: 527	Well I don't know what if any controller you have but ideally I would run a daily adjusted schedule based off some reef area of the world i.e. Fiji adjusted to your time zone with varying light levels through the day i.e. sunrise, midday, sunset and moon. If you want less algae deal with nitrate and phosphate levels.

04/29/2014, 10:44 AM	#3
thegrun Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Garden Grove, Ca Posts: 17,023	I ramp up for 4 hours, maintain maximum intensity for 4 hours and then ramp down for 4 hours.