Lighting periods

I feel i run mine a bit long as well, my actinics come on and 10 am and shut off at 11 pm. My 400 watt metal halides run from 12 pm to 9 pm. I am curious as to what kind of schedules others are running as well.

 

Just halides, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

I keep that schedule because it gives me an hour or two to feed before I work a closing shift and a few hours after an opening shift.

 

I need to get some timers for mine, but I plan on having the actinic's go on at noon and turnoff at 1:00 pm the the 9k bulb and 20K's turn on at 1:00 pm and run until 9:00 pm. The actinics will start off at 9:00 pm again and turn of at 10:30 pm.  Currently I'm turning the actinics on before I go to work, then I turn the 9k and 20k's on when I get home at 4:00 pm.  I like to look at my tank in the morning I guess I'll have to get some lunar lights to run at night.  I might need to get an aquacontroller soon.

 

Mine are as follows:

1pm Actinics ON
1:30pm MH1 ON
2:00pm MH2 ON

9:30pm MH1 OFF
10:00pm MH2 OFF
10:30pm Actinics OFF

eins

 

Actinics are from 1000 to 2200
MH are from 1300 to 2230
On weekends they often get an extra hour of actinic if I am messing with the tank.

 

I got six bulbs of t5
mine are
actinics on 11:00
first set on 11:20
second set on 1:20

first set off 8:30
secondset off 9:50
actinics off 10:40

 

do u run your mh longer at night then your actinics?
Posted By BGreenlee on 12/22/2007 8:42 AM

Actinics are from 1000 to 2200
MH are from 1300 to 2230
On weekends they often get an extra hour of actinic if I am messing with the tank.

 

Posted By davidm199 on 12/22/2007 8:49 AM
do u run your mh longer at night then your actinics?
Posted By BGreenlee on 12/22/2007 8:42 AM

Actinics are from 1000 to 2200
MH are from 1300 to 2230
On weekends they often get an extra hour of actinic if I am messing with the tank.
Good catch, MH are off at 2030 not 2230. I just run them 7.5 hours a day.

 

The question with many answers. /site/DesktopModules/NTForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif  For lighting, my fixture has 4) 54W T5's and 2) 250W MH SE bulbs.  I also have a separate dimmable moonlight stick with sunrise, moonlight and storm. 
I run this schedule around my work hours.  I have found that 6 hours of MH is plenty for my corals.  It's about the right balance between giving the corals enough lighting to promote growth while inhibiting unwanted algae.  Not to mention lower energy cost and I get to see my tank go through different lighting phases when I am at home.
14:00 Sunrise on
16:30 Sunrise off
16:30 Actinics on
17:30 MH-L on
18:00 MH-R on
23:30 MH-L off
00:00 MH-R off
00:30 Actinics off
00:30 Moonlights on
09:00 Moonlights off

 

I run my 150w mh on my 24 nano from 1pm to 8pm, otherwise the tank gets too hot and I don't want it getting to hot.  When the halide is off the blue moons are on so it looks ok.