Lighting Question

[clay]

i have a marineland 48inch t5 lighting system with 2 daylight and 2 actinic bulbs. i have a setting that turns on just the daylight, a setting that turns on just the actinics, and a setting that turns on both. what i want to know is should i have both on all day (9-12) hours, or should i just have one set on and one set off?

 

[GrayScale]

If you can set them on a seperate timer, what you could do is 2 hours actinics only, 8 hours both, then 2 hours actinic then lights out. It sort of emulates a "natural" light cycle. My amount of time might be off some but this is what ive heard of a lot of people doing and what I will be doing myself when im all set up.

 

[clay]

If you can set them on a seperate timer, what you could do is 2 hours actinics only, 8 hours both, then 2 hours actinic then lights out. It sort of emulates a "natural" light cycle. My amount of time might be off some but this is what ive heard of a lot of people doing and what I will be doing myself when im all set up.

Thanks I'll try that. But i have to manually do it because my light doesnt have settings or anything. It just has a button.

 

[-Nemo-]

I have to do mine manually too... I usually have blues for an hour... blues + daylight for 8 hours... blues are an hour.

 

[clay]

hm that also sounds good. and also is it normal for my tank to be cloudy in the mornings?

 

[kj23502]

cloudy? No not really. Unless you have midnight burrowing fish.

 

[clay]

its always cloudy between 2 and 5 hours after the lights are on.