advice on how long my lights should be on and cycled

[shavo]

hey everybody i know I have been asking questions alot but i have another one if anybody can help.
I have a 125 gallon reef tank and things are good so far, I have purchased some corals, nothing too fancy just some leathers and polyps and xenia. I have a question regarding how long my lights should be cycled on.
I have the orbit 72" 24 hour lighting system and it has 4X96 white and blue actinics in it and the moon light LED's.
I was curious since these lights are cycled on a timer , how long they should be running on any given day. I believe now I have my blue actinics coming on at 3 pm until 11 pm and the white lights coming on from 4 pm until 10 pm.

1. is this enough or too much?
2. and do i have enough lighting in general

can anybody shed some light on the situation????

 

[RobertoVespucci]

These things are like a child's mobile, if you push on one part after a while other parts will move, too, but if you do it right there will be some balance.

For the softies you have in there, that is enough. With a 6-8 hour photoperiod, you will see growth from year to year, but you shouldn't have much by way of algae problems. In other words, that's not enough light even for weeds to grow like weeds.

Good options would be to get more light and leave your photoperiod about as is. If you think you might one day want so clams or SPS then you should start saving up for that now. The other option is to leave your lights on longer. I've a friend with a highly similar lighting configuration who keeps the actinics on 14 hours and white lights on 12. He gets a lot of growth, and I think you would, too. You'll grow a lot more algae, for which the simple solution is to add more snails. You might even get away with some of the lower light LPS like caluastrea. It all just depends on what you want to keep.

And, there's nothing that says you can't leave the lights on longer now and get brighter lights later.

 

[shavo]

hey thank you for your very thorough response. it helps me out tremendously. I think i may bump it up a little. i did just get 20 more astreas so I think i might be able to handle it. although i do have a little red hair algea starting. any thing out there that goes for red hair?

 

[RobertoVespucci]

I had good luck with my queen conch. It seemed to like it. I'm waiting for my LFS to get another.

 

[mr_X]

my snails are munching on the red fuzzies on some new rock i just put in.
BTW...headed to pick up my 125 gallon tank next weekend. talk about impulse buys!

 

[shavo]

hey dougie, new tank? cool good luck with it. you are stepping up in the world really quick! i bought $500 worth of fish from an online distributor and not happy about it, give me a call sometime this week

where did you get your tank from? that fish place?


peace out homie

 

[shavo]

just wantred to see if my icon worked

 

[mr_X]

na..$ 365.00 from ebay. 125 with stand and 2 cheezeball 36" flourescent hoods.

 

[shavo]

where are you picking it up from, buy it from somebody in the area?

 

[mr_X]

yeah..north jersey.

 

[shavo]

that was one quick response, so a 125 with a fuge? get it running yet?
i am going to send you an email you on msn now?

 

[mr_X]

negative. no fuge. undrilled tank. it's for rhonda. she wanted her own tank. fish only.
i have to pick it up still.
btw. i have to send some pics of my refugium. it's loaded up with miracle mud and all...just waiting for it to settle.

 

[mr_X]

nice looking tank. all that stuff reef safe?

 

[shavo]

yeah I only buy things that are "reef safe"