How long is to long

[cygmark]

Hey guys i just wanted everyones opinion on how i should run my lighting setup as in how long the lights should be on and such.

I have a 72" coralife fixture, 3-250 wattMH, and 4 36 power compacts(atinics)

What should my lighting schedual be.

I have 1 bubble tip anenome, and 3 turbo snails and 4 chromis,(starter crew)

The tank has been running for just over 2 weeks, i have started to get a layer of greenish brown slime on some of the rocks to.

Any help would be appericiated.

Thanks
Josh

[The Grizz]

Hey Josh, your MH should only run 6 hrs continuios as I have been told. As in my case for an example my lights run as follow's:

Actinics 9 am - 9pm
Fiji Purple 10am - 8 pm
10000K 11am - 7pm
3 - 250 MH 14000K 1pm - 6pm
Moon light's 9pm - 6am

This seem's to work for me, you could run your MH for a couple hrs & have them shut off for a couple hr's, but have them on for when you are around the most for viewing.

Greg

[globaldesigns]

I have a 4 ft version of what you have. I run my MH for 11 hours with PC's for 12 hours, remainder are the moon lights

[The Grizz]

Originally Posted by globaldesigns

I have a 4 ft version of what you have. I run my MH for 11 hours with PC's for 12 hours, remainder are the moon lights

Ricks tank is awesome, I have seen it in living color.

Rick do you run the MH for 11 hrs straight?

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

Ricks tank is awesome, I have seen it in living color.

Rick do you run the MH for 11 hrs straight?

Yup, I run it straight.

You will get varied ideas on time, what Greg is doing isn't wrong either. The longer you leave the lights on the more growth time you can get for the coral.

Maybe you can start with 6 hours and increase over time to see how the coral and fish react. If you start seeing adverse affects, then back off one increment.

When I first started, I was at 8 hours for my MH, increased to 11 and left them at that.

Greg, next time in Calgary come on by to see the tank again, can give you a frag of Star Polyps if you want. You can see how the NP BioPellets are working. This stuff is really starting to kick in, I am now really happy with the tank results.

[cygmark]

Yeah i was running my MH for 12 hrs, but i think thats why i have the brown stuff forming on the rocks and such, i should back it off hey mabey to 6hrs a day?

[The Grizz]

Hey Josh,

Rick's idea of starting with 6 hrs and then increasing to see what your coral like's is dead on. I have not increased my lighting time once I figured out what I liked but will have to play with it on the new tank if I ever get it going.

Rick, sounds good, would like to see what you have going on these days.

[Doo]

cool thread!

I run my MH 2X150 w for 11.5 hours

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by cygmark

Hey guys i just wanted everyones opinion on how i should run my lighting setup as in how long the lights should be on and such.

I have a 72" coralife fixture, 3-250 wattMH, and 4 36 power compacts(atinics)

What should my lighting schedual be.

I have 1 bubble tip anenome, and 3 turbo snails and 4 chromis,(starter crew)

The tank has been running for just over 2 weeks, i have started to get a layer of greenish brown slime on some of the rocks to.

Any help would be appericiated.

Thanks
Josh

I hate to pick on you, but I would be more concerned with having an anemone in a 2 week old tank, than I would about photoperiod.

Anemones can be picky and generally do best when added to an established tank, typically 6mos or longer. I realize others may disagree and have had success, but 2 weeks is definitely too early for an Anemone.


As for lighting, I'd recommend anything from 6-8hrs hours for MH. Most corals can only use so much photoperiod for useful growth from articles that I've read. There is a thread on RC with a lot of people who tested/testing the theory of shorter photoperiod to yeild greater results in growth.

I was even testing it out on my old 75G, but fell short of any useful data as I ended up shutting it down and selling.

[cygmark]

Ok so everyone is clear..... The anenome came unawares to me on a piece of live rock found out the next day, it survived my ammonia spikes and still looks good, I would not like to do anything wrong, but every single aquarium is diffrent, I'm hopping that this works in my favor.

Thanks
Josh