Metal halides time

[ATP123]

How long should the metal halides be turned on for a 125 gallons?

I have a milipora, a toungue, a brain, polyps, mushrooms, a toadstool, a few devils gloves, a bubble coral, a torch and a few others.

 

[Myteemouse]

8 hours is good
do you have any other source of light
I run my t-5 actanics on at 1030am
MH on at 1130
MH off at 730 pm
actanic off at 830 pm

 

[ATP123]

Right now i turned the actinic and daylight at 10 am. at 12 the halides turns on until 7, than the actinic/ daylight will turn on until 1- pm

 

[lizardarm]

Souds like ample photo period for the halides.

 

[ATP123]

Souds like ample photo period for the halides.

What do you mean?

 

[Myteemouse]

he means your doing it good...don't change anything.

 

[Mopar Reefer]

You can mess around with your photo period to find out what works best for your tank/corals. I used to run the MH's for 10-12 hrs a day but noticed slow growth and bleaching of colors on my corals. Now i only run my MH's for 7 hrs a day and it has made a world of difference.

 

[reef18ster]

You can mess around with your photo period to find out what works best for your tank/corals.

I agree. I run mine for only 5hours 500W total for MH over a 75g per day. Not only that, it runs at 7pm-12am so when I get home from work, I can still enjoy my tank and not go home to tank darkness. I don't run a chiller so this time frame also helps me out by not getting the tank hot during peak hours.

 

[Myteemouse]

I agree play with it to get your corals and tank to grow good but your lights now are good everyone is differnent

 

[ATP123]

Thanks,

So I will see how it goes in a few months. So i should just adjust it to see how the corals like it. Right?

Thanks for the help

 

[reef18ster]

So i should just adjust it to see how the corals like it. Right?

If all your corals seem fine and you're satisfied with the time that the lights are on, then there is no need to adjust.