Lighting schedule

Just wondering what kind of schedule you are running your lights. I've always run a 12 hr schedule with actinics on 1st, an hr later the MH's come on and stay on for 10 hrs, then an hr later the actinics go off.

Lately I'm having problems with some corals and their colors getting almost pastel looking, especially purples. I talked to one of the reef lighting experts at our frag swap and he told me the reason for the lightening colors was lack of nutrients in the tank and too long of a photo period. I don't want to add nutrients to the system, so I'm changing the light schedule. Last weekend I dropped the times to actinics on, 1 hr later MH's for 7 hrs then 1 hr later actinics off for a total of 9 hrs. Time will tell if this makes any difference. I want DARK purples.

At the moment I'm trying to keep my light schedule to 8 hours of daylight.
My first set of blues come on at 11am, second set at 11:30am, and then the daylights at 12pm.
The daylight bulb goes off at 8pm, then the first set of blues at 8:30 and the second set at 9pm.

My new tank is getting a lot of light in that room so it's already starting to wake up and get some northern light at 7am.

I have always ran 12 hour schedules, because it allows for me to be able to feed in the morning and at night in 2 smaller feedings. But for algae reasons I'm thinking I should change it down and just make my fish deal with one feeding.

I run a 12 hour schedule 2 hours of blues before and after the MH go on and off. I think that is a very happy medium for my tank.

I assume you are all using timers for your lights. I am researching T5 HO units and like the idea of getting one with a timer on the unit. My question is: Is this a bad idea? What happens if/when the timer goes bad? Would I be better off using a separate timer? I'm trying to visualize this and it seems like alot more clutter at the electrical strip.

I used to use one of these Coralife Digital Power Centers


But now I use a Reef Keeper Lite.

I run 4 VHO`s and have the 2 Super actinics coming on at 9AM and then the two 50/50 coming on at 10AM. Then I have the 50/50 coming off at 8PM and the actinics coming off at 9PM.

You are better off getting separate timers from the hardware store, IMO. They only cost a few bucks and are much more reliable than those CrapTastic Coralife power strips that I've tried!

I only run my halides 6 hours a day. I read on RC that sps can only consume calcium for that long. Any longer and you are not growing the coral. I do run my vho actinics for 10 hours. After the frag swap I plan on changing the vho to a 4 bulb t5 and running more of a viewing bulb setup.

I have a Intermatic timer that adjusts to sunrise and sundown. Works great to shut down at sundown so there's not a ufo in my dining room! I run the daylight on that one and my blues on a fixed 8 am to 930 pm.

Digital Appliance Timer DT620CL | Intermatic, Inc.

Digital Lamp Timer DT300CL | Intermatic, Inc.

I took a power strip and mounted it to the stand backside and then plugged my timers into that, nice and neat!