Hey just curious as to what others are doing here on tft. Do you have your lights out for the night or does anyone leave there blue lights on for the night. I saw a really old discussion on another forum googling some info when that popped up.
Blue Lights Vs Lights Out
- Thread starter nathan
- Start date
zoomster
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2014
- Location
- Port Rowan, Ontario
Hey Nathan.
I am no lighting expert by any means so I hope some pro does jump in here for you but,.....
I would never leave the 420 or 460 nm lights on full time as I believe it could help promote nuisance algae ect? Now that being said,
I always have some lights on in my tank.
Here is my schedule;
Dawn /dusk - 10am to 10pm
Full lights - 12pm to 9pm
Moonlight - 10pm-8am
Natural only - 8am to 10am
If any of you light pros think I should change any of this, we are all ears! Lol.
Anyway, I have found that running the lunar lights helps with the nocturnal feeders (inverts and corals), late night viewing if I like and, makes a great night-light for my house guests to find the bathroom by at night.
My philosophy is, in the wild, there is ALMOST always some level of lighting in the ocean ( sun and moon ) so we should try and provide that in our indoor mini oceans too shouldn't we?
I am no lighting expert by any means so I hope some pro does jump in here for you but,.....
I would never leave the 420 or 460 nm lights on full time as I believe it could help promote nuisance algae ect? Now that being said,
I always have some lights on in my tank.
Here is my schedule;
Dawn /dusk - 10am to 10pm
Full lights - 12pm to 9pm
Moonlight - 10pm-8am
Natural only - 8am to 10am
If any of you light pros think I should change any of this, we are all ears! Lol.
Anyway, I have found that running the lunar lights helps with the nocturnal feeders (inverts and corals), late night viewing if I like and, makes a great night-light for my house guests to find the bathroom by at night.
My philosophy is, in the wild, there is ALMOST always some level of lighting in the ocean ( sun and moon ) so we should try and provide that in our indoor mini oceans too shouldn't we?
Thanks for your input.... I'm just curious. I've thought about leaving the moon lights on for the night . I don't think the blue lights will contribute to algae growth so I was just curious of any other negative effects.
zoomster
Active Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2014
- Location
- Port Rowan, Ontario
No problem.
One other thing to consider is, if you are running T5's, leaving them on basically "full time" will drastically increase how often you have to replace them.
One other thing to consider is, if you are running T5's, leaving them on basically "full time" will drastically increase how often you have to replace them.
heath
Distinguished Member
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2012
- Location
- Woodstock, Ontario
I run a T5 quad that are on timers and have a blue led strip that runs 24/7...I agree with Zoomster, it gives the nocturnal time to come out and a nice ambiance to the tank... just my 2 cents..
4Hummer
Member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2014
- Location
- Kitchener, Ontario
Mine goes something like this?
Blue LEDs on my reef Bars ramp up in the morning, and Ramp down at Night, Blue T5HO's come on after LEDS are at full power for an hour then the Whites come on.
Night time is the opposite, T5H0 Whites off, T5H0 Blues off (After an hour of the Whites being off) Blue LED Reef Bars Ramp Down, and then my Blue "Moon Lights" come on They run until about 3 am.
Blue LEDs on my reef Bars ramp up in the morning, and Ramp down at Night, Blue T5HO's come on after LEDS are at full power for an hour then the Whites come on.
Night time is the opposite, T5H0 Whites off, T5H0 Blues off (After an hour of the Whites being off) Blue LED Reef Bars Ramp Down, and then my Blue "Moon Lights" come on They run until about 3 am.
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