What's your lighting schedule ?!

[Myka]

Most people will run actinics or blues 12 hours a day give or take, some people up to 14 hours. The whites/halides are where you will see the biggest difference. Some people don't separate blues from whites or just use purely halides with no actinic supplementation. So you will get some people running whites or halides up to 14 hours as well. For those separating them most people run the whites/halides 6-10 hours, with the "usual" being 8 hours.

In the wild, most of the critters in our tanks come from oceans relatively close to the equator so their days are pretty close to 12 hours light, and 12 hours dark. The light doesn't vary much more than 13:11. Keep that in mind when you're thinking of your lighting schedule.

Personally, I have experimented with actinics 10-14 hours, and halides 6-8 hours. I honestly note absolutely no difference in growth, color, or general health of my tank. So I run actinics for 12 hours, and halides for 6 hours. This way my halides will go longer before needing to be changed out. I will often run the actinics for 13 hours in the winter just to add some light to our short winter days!