Light for corals

F

fishtender

Do corals benifit from Actinic light as well as broad/full spectrum light? If so, could anyone tell me how much and how long (minimum) I should be running each type for my corals to get what they need? I have mostly Softies, a Frogspawn and a Torch in a 29L that now has 130W PC, soon to be T5 next week ...I am hoping...

Thanks
 
@fishtender wrote:
Do corals benifit from Actinic light as well as broad/full spectrum light? said:
Very, very little and only as an addition to the other light. On it's own it really does nothing for photosynthesis, but it does bring out some of the flourescent colors. The corals really do not need it at all, we really use it for our own benefit for visual enhancement.
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So, similar to algae, they benefit more from the red end of the spectrum? How many hours a day (on average) should I run my daylight lamps for them to get the nutrition they need? I realize they are all different in there needs, but in general...
 
Most of us run lights a lot longer than the corals need to survive. It depends on the intensity of your lights and the type of corals. But I would guess you could probably get away with six hours and they would be fine. If you really wanted to light the tank for that little of time, you could try it and see if they thrive or not. Then you could increase the light time if the corals are going bad.
 
The set of lights I will be getting has built-in timers. I just want to make sure I set them appropriately so that I am providing my corals with the amount they need. I will probably set the Daylights to 8hr and the actinics to 10 or 12. As it is now, I turn on the actinics at around 9a and the daylights on at about 10a then shut down daylights at 8p and the actinics at 9p. That is a lot of daylight. I don't have them on a timer though so they are at the mercy of my schedule..

Thanks for the great info Rick. I appreciate it... :)

Howard
 
I am running 9.8 watts/gallon:
two 400w MH's - both 10" off the water
two 96w actinics

on a 100 gallon 18" deep sps tank.

Since I have such intense lighting I run my MH's 6 hours a day and actinics run 8 hours a day.
 
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