Lighting

[mbu man]

how long should white lights be on for?
enough so things can grow,but not to much so that yiu get loads of algae?

 

[Matthew5664]

My lighting period is 12hours with the metal halides on for 8 hours.

 

[yorkcoparamedic]

My lighting is on for 12 hours too.

12 hours actinic and 10 hours white light. White comes on one hour after actinic and goes off one hour before actinics. Then the moon lights come on during lights out.

You might have to play with your lighting some to get the right setting for your tank. Every tank is different. When you make a lighting change you change the duration anyway you like. I just moved forward or backward by one hour.

If your worried about algae there are other factors you need to consider too, like water parameters and overfeeding. There are several other things as well but those seem to be the biggest culprits.