Light Timing Question

[DeanG13]

So I searched around for a bit but couldn't find a straight answer about how long my lights should be on per day. My lighting setup is as follows:

Nova Current Extreme Hanging above the tank (two 39W T5 Actinic and two 39W T5 10K's)
Coralife Ballast mounted on the tank (one 39W T5 Actinic and one 39W T5 10K)
Eight Blue LED's attached to the Coralife ballast (used as moon lights).

I'd like to create the "sunrise/sunset" effect I've seen on a bunch of tanks on the site. Currently I run the Actinics with the 10K's simultaneously for 8hrs followed by the moonlights till I go to bed. I'd like to run the Actinics and 10K's separately but I'm not sure which should be run for longer or which should go on first.

Does anyone have a time table they use for their lights that I could use as an example to base my light schedule on?

Thanks

-Dean

 

[project5k]

on my tank i have the option of up to 4 seperate light stages, but i've just simplifyed it down to actinics come on at 9am, everything else comes on at 10am, then all the whites go off at 10 pm, and then the actinics go off at 11pm...

just uses 2 $10 digital timers from harbor freight...

 

[Bifferwine]

If you want to do a dawn/dusk effect, then turn on your actinics (blue bulbs) one hour before the daylights (white bulbs) come on, and then turn the actinics off one hour after the daylights go off. You should run your lights for 8 to 12 hours a day total. Unless you have algae problems, no corals, or something like that.

 

[DeanG13]

Thanks guys!

 

[Hiker4twenty]

I run my lights for a total of 8hrs per day. It seems to work well for my tank and doesn't produce algae for me.

 

[dcantucson]

I run my light 12 hours a day.

 

[Hiker4twenty]

So it seems like I'm running my lights the least amount of time out of everyone who replied. I only run 8hrs in fear of an algae problem like I had before with the hair algae. I know I have all my nutrients in check and my levels are good so I should't have anything to worry about running them longer. I've got about 15 different sps in my tank and will adding more. Do you think I should run my lights longer as they require more light?