Anybody know the answer

[nanoreefnewbie]

I just started cycling a 20 gallon nano reef its got 40ish lbs live rock and 20 lbs sand..I'm using a marineland LED light..i turn it on 8 am ish from night moon lights and 8 pm turn off all light into darkness for a few hours then the moon lights till morning..is this a proper light cycle or what..any suggestions???

[Aquattro]

12 hours of full light might be a bit much. I run my LEDs full power for about 7 hours. Depends on the intensity and the corals. If they're ok and good color, you should be ok, but could probably get away with less.

[nanoreefnewbie]

12 hours of full light might be a bit much. I run my LEDs full power for about 7 hours. Depends on the intensity and the corals. If they're ok and good color, you should be ok, but could probably get away with less.

Sweet thanks you ill change accordingly then...is the full darkness right? And moonlight time doesn't matter right??? And right now tank is cycling so no corals yet..thank you for suggestion aquattro..:biggrin:

[Aquattro]

Sweet thanks you ill change accordingly then...is the full darkness right? And moonlight time doesn't matter right??? And right now tank is cycling so no corals yet..thank you for suggestion aquattro..:biggrin:

Full dark is fine. I think moonlight is more for us, although I run it, just because I can. Nothing bad about it.

[Nano]

+1 I do about 7-8 hours daylight then my moonlights come one for 2 hours or so

[subman]

Me to full power for about six hour with a ramp up of about 1 hour on either side. I run moonlights for a couple hours before and after but it goes full black in between, I find the fish like the pitch black ( I think they do anyway lol)

[nanoreefnewbie]

Full dark is fine. I think moonlight is more for us, although I run it, just because I can. Nothing bad about it.

More for us?? Bigger tanks you mean? Nanos don't require moon lights...

[nanoreefnewbie]

+1 I do about 7-8 hours daylight then my moonlights come one for 2 hours or so awesome thank you ill change my lighting from 6-8 hrs few hrs moon night will be darkness

[nanoreefnewbie]

Me to full power for about six hour with a ramp up of about 1 hour on either side. I run moonlights for a couple hours before and after but it goes full black in between, I find the fish like the pitch black ( I think they do anyway lol)

Yea I would think so we like too sleep in dark right:smile:

[Aquattro]

More for us?? Bigger tanks you mean? Nanos don't require moon lights...

lol, no just the whole moonlight idea is to make the humans happy, not the fish.

[nanoreefnewbie]

Oohhh lol I'm dumb haha..yea I can see how that appearing for humans lol..so fish like complete darkness that won't effect corals and how they eat

[Enigma]

Which Marineland LED are you using? The Reef Bright one (the stronger of the two) only has 1W LEDs. That's only 23W over a 24"-36" tank. That is not a lot of light. You may very well need to run a longer light cycle: even to keep softies and LPS. You won't be keeping SPS with that light.

I have a 36" four bulb T5 fixture over my 40 breeder, and I need to run a 12 hour light cycle to keep SPS from going completely brown on me.

Edit: Sorry. I should say that you "probably" won't be keeping SPS with that light. Most will be a no-go, but a handful might do okay.

[nanoreefnewbie]

Which Marineland LED are you using? The Reef Bright one (the stronger of the two) only has 1W LEDs. That's only 23W over a 24"-36" tank. That is not a lot of light. You may very well need to run a longer light cycle: even to keep softies and LPS. You won't be keeping SPS with that light.

I have a 36" four bulb T5 fixture over my 40 breeder, and I need to run a 12 hour light cycle to keep SPS from going completely brown on me.

Edit: Sorry. I should say that you "probably" won't be keeping SPS with that light. Most will be a no-go, but a handful might do okay.

I'm not 100 percent on my light..itsgot 12 lights total...and 1 watt er light yes

[Enigma]

If it has 12 lights, I'm assuming you're got the 24-36" "Double Bright" fixture. That's only 0.6W per gallon (based on 20 gallons of water), which is really, really low. A longer light cycle will be a good idea, but your fixture is really going to limit what you can keep for corals.

[nanoreefnewbie]

[QUOTE=Enigma;745428]If it has 12 lights, I'm assuming you're got the 24-36" "Double Bright" fixture. That's only 0.6W per gallon (based on 20 gallons of water), which is really, really low. A longer light cycle will be a good idea, but your fixture is really going to limit what you can keep for corals.[/QUOTE

I'm not expert so I'm going for hardy corals that the requirements arnt all crazy...but sounds like im in order for a light upgrade here soon lol:lol:..thank you for the advice