How Long Do You Keep Your Lights On For?

[1entra]

Hi guys I'm quite interested in knowing how long you guys keep the lights on you marine tanks on for.

It would b nice to have input from everyone with a marine tank with regards to lighting.

All comments would be welcome especially timings of lights ie. what time the lights come on in the morning and what time the go off in the evenings along with timings for daylights (halides) and actinics etc .

For example my actinics come on at 12 noon and stay on till 2pm. During this time my MH bulb comes on at about 1pm and stays on till 7pm. My actinics come back on at 6pm and stay on till 9pm but just befope they go off my LED moonlights come on at 8.30pm and stay on for an hour and a half till 10pm and then there is total darkness in the tank other than if i switch the room lights on.

Now it would be nice for everyone reading this topic to add their own input. Don't be shy as there are no real right or wrong answers as long as everything is ok and seems happy.

 

[JustKia]

My tank lights come on around 8.30am until 11.30, there is plenty of ambient (not direct) daylight. Then the lights come back on 2.30-7.30pm.
I'm looking at some sort of moonlighting or blacklight to add to this.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

.... Mine stays on 24/7.....

 

[rabbut]

Halide only from 7am till 4pm. 9 hours total

 

[Nick16]

8-10 hours is best

 

[kj23502]

I'll do 12 hours.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I did have mine set for 10 hours (the actinics for 11) however I have just switched this down to 8 hours to try and fight off the cyno (I actually thought it was running 8 hours but forgot I hadn't changed the timers when I moved the tanks!).

 

[seffieuk]

12 hours main lights (T5s) then moonlights for the eveing - bedtime for me as well fish everything goes dark

Seffie x

 

[jennybugs]

I have my moonlight leds on for 2 hours, overlapping with my T5 compacts so the white/actinics are on then for 7 hours, then the mooonlights overlap for a further two hours before lights out.

The tank's fairly new and when I increased the white/actinics for an extra hour the algae growth went crazy! hoping it will all settle in time though.

 

[Eigdoog]

1pm - 7pm

6 hours i know 8 is alot better but my room gets to hot with everything working in it.

 

[IIITYIII]

my halide is on from 11am - 6pm, actinics are on from 7:00 to 8:00

 

[SkiFletch]

Halides only, on from 4pm to 1am

 

[ben1987]

my tank is lit for 12 hours. Halides are the middle 6 hours and the other 6 are LED's

 

[kpris]

I do a bit of a funny thing as i have two halides, one that lights up the left and one that lights up the right. So i have one or the other or both on at different times. They're each individually on for 9 hours and both on during the afternoon when I'd normally be coming home from uni or work so that i can enjoy the tank =)
The times are:
left: 12.30 - 9.30
right: 9.30 - 12.30 ; 4.30 - 10.30
Also I'm thinking of having some sort of period during the middle of the day when the lights turn off because it's starting to get really hot here and would be alot easier than setting up some timed fanning system. Probably would also help prevent any algae problems which being the pessimist i am, I'm expecting any day now.

 

[Colin_T]

I have fluoros running from 12noon until 2am. The lights are on at night to act as a night light and because power is cheaper after 9pm.