15 hours of lighting is too much?

[joanndl]

I am new at this reef thing and would like to know how many hours should I leave the light on daily. I have a 58 gallon Oceanic reefready that comes with the original manufactured compact florecent. I have my light on from 7 in the morning to 10 at night and switch it to moon light from 10PM to 7 AM. Is this too much light? What harm will too much lighting cause beside the hight electric bill? Thanks.

Joann.

 

[mojoreef]

If the tank is just a fish only tank it should be fine at whatever hours you want. If its corals then you might not have enough light.


mike

 

[joanndl]

Not enough? What do I need for coral? Is that why my xenia shrunk or dead? Thank you for your input.

Joann

 

[moortim]

I don't think Mojo means that it isn't on long enough, but rather you don't have enough light output. How much wattage does your light produce? How many bulbs do you have? Yes it can cause all kinds of coral problems.

Tim

 

[shawn]

Don't mean to butt in. What would be ideal for lighting hours for a reef tank. daylight, actinic, moonlights

 

[moortim]

Anyone can correct me if I am wrong but Xenia is a photosinthetic coral, it needs fairly strong light for its simbiotic algae to grow and for it to feed. If you don't have several hundred watts (just a guess I don't know how deep your tank is) of light or have it near the surface it will not be very healthy. HTH

Tim

 

[alison]

replicate nature

Its best to replicte the natural habitat. It depends on where your coral is from. You will probably need a higher output for your corals, but that also means you don't need to leave it on more than through the daylight hours. I recommend a double fixture, one actinic, one high spectrum bulb.

 

[moortim]

Don't mean to butt in. What would be ideal for lighting hours for a reef tank. daylight, actinic, moonlights

I use 50/50 bulbs right now so I can't split up my actinics from my daylights but I have a smaller hood that comes on at 9am and my main lights come on at 10am. They stay on until 9pm when the big one turns off and the small one stays on till 10pm. I have a night light that is on the rest of the time. I know that some people do it shorter than this but I am only home in the evenings so I have them stay on later.
This is not set in stone but is what works for me. I don't think there are any major rules for how long lights are on other than being consistent. Try to think about what a day on a real reef would be like .

Tim

 

[joanndl]

I will check the out put but I know there is 4 tubs, 2 10K and not sure about the other 2 (the light is much dimmer that I use at night, I also have a moon light that I use at night from time to time instead).

 

[Krish]

I run my lights for 8hrs a day...What does that mean? Not sure...Just heard people usually run them about that long

 

[Scooterman]

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71

This is a link to good lighting information for someone starting out.
You can't just say hey this is what you need, lots of things like tank depth, money you can afford to buy equipment, what are you wanting to keep in your tank, type corals can make a big difference. We generally categorize them in three groups, softies, LPS & SPS which in that order have higher light demands.