Yet more lighting questions... cycling...

Sinluien

Reefing newb
Okay so i see lots of pictures with people showing of their actinic lights. I'm struggling to find the information i need. I'm interesting in purchasing:
Current USA Nova Extreme T5HO

and am curious as to when to run the lights. All of them for 12 hours? 6 hours of each?- Why do these people "show off" their actinic lights. yea they look cool but is that right for the fishies and whatnot? Are there side effects of moonlights? On start up my setup is going to be a FOWLR and eventually move to some cool stuff. urchin, anemone, and corals. BTW wtf i cant find local clubs/ get togethers around here nor do any of the fish stores within 30 minutes sell corals of any kind.
 
Turning on the actinicts first, then the daylights, then turning the daylights off first, then the actinics off creates a sunrise and sunset effect.

It's really up to you. You can run them all for 8 hours a day, or run the actinics for 8, and the daylights for 6 in the middle.

Moonlights really don't serve a purpose except make your tank cooler to watch at night.
 
Normally we run the actinics as dawn and dusk, an hour before and after the daylights turn on/off, and they run the full 12 hours with your daylights.

Actinic is a natural light in the ocean it similates (spell check) there natural environment and helps colors come out better.
 
okay. so i need to put the actinics in their own ballast and the 10k in the other so control seperately right? any bulbs changes i need to worry about or is 465's and 10k's what i need? like i said FOWLR for now then to the "easy" / "soft" corals So, no negative side effects from the moonglows? Whites or Blues?
 
I prefer the blue moon lights looks more natural.

Yes if you want to control them seperatly you would need to put them on there own ballast. Your bulbs are fine (what size tank?) When you start keeping coral the lighting might needed to be changed depending on the size of tank you are putting them on.
 
55 gallon... the everyone has one type. 48 * 12* 24 i believe. i wish i could find something of a different shape, but tank costs goes through the roof. oh update: wife came in the back door stepped in my kiddie pool of rock and screamed " WTF IS POOL OF CAT PEE AND ROCKS BACK HERE?!?!?
 
55 gallon... The everyone has one type. 48 * 12* 24 i believe. I wish i could find something of a different shape, but tank costs goes through the roof. Oh update: Wife came in the back door stepped in my kiddie pool of rock and screamed " wtf is pool of cat pee and rocks back here?!?!?



lol :^:
 
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