T5 Lighting System

[Sherry]

I just bought a T5 Lighting System for a 75 gallon reef tank (I am in the process of setting up the tank). There are 8 bulbs 54 watts each - 4 are 10 K's and 4 are Actinic.

My question is in regards to the lights themselves:

Do I run the 10K's with the Actinics all day and get a moonlight for nighttime?

Or are the Actinics the bulbs I run at night?

:? :? Lighting is very confusing! :? :?

 

[zonkers]

Hi again Sherry

Yes, lighting can be a confusing topic-- I'm still picking things up all the time.

My personal practice is that my actinics go on at about 7:00am, then my whites come on at about 8:30am. Both will stay on until about 8:30pm, then the whites go off, leaving the actinics until about 9:30pm. This creates a kind of 'sunrise/sunset' effect for your fish. The lunar leds I have set to go on during the rest of the night, so there is no hour without some kind of light going on.

Side note-- My mandarin loves it when the lights go off & only the lunars are on. During the day, she will 'work the rock' all day long, & then retire for a while when the whites go off. Then every few nights or so, after the actinics go off, she will come out & take what I think of as her 'midnight constitutional'-- she will swim in the currents at the surface of the water, & surprisingly, is almost downright friendly. She will actually allow me to touch her! I think she is going after plankters hanging out in the lunar light. The she will eventually go & find some place in the tank, pale out, & crash til the next morning.

Take care

Pete

 

[Sherry]

Thanks Pete . . . Your The Man!!!

That is probably the best way lighting has been describe to me yet!

 

[zonkers]

Awww, gawrsh!

I'm not The man, just A man