Question about lighting power and time of use

[Yash]

I recently ordered a new light strip for my tank (36 gal bow front - dimensions are 30x15x21). The light includes: 65 watt 10,000K Daylight bulb, 65 watt True Actinic 03 Blue bulb (Straight Pin), and two 3/4 watt Lunar Blue-Moon-Glow LED lamps.

So, the question I had was: will this provide enough light for my tank? Its is currently only a FOWLR setup, but I plan on adding some corals down the road. I'll pretty much be concentrating on easy to maintain corals for now since I'm still a newbie. Will the light I have be able to sustain corals? If so, will it only support a particular type, and not others that might need different lighting?

The second part to my question was: how long do you folks keep your lights on in your tanks? With this lighting that I have ordered, I'll be able to mimic the sun-moon cycle (which I think is really cool :)). BUT, should I only limit the daylight lights for a max. time frame? I would imagine that too much light could cause an accelerated algae growth?

Regards,
Yash

[Fishieness]

you will be able to keep softies and lps corals
as far as timeing, are you able to turn on each light seperately? leave the actinic one on for 10-12 hours and the daylight for 8-10. it is a matter of preference mainly.
right now i have my actinics on for 14 hours but that is because i am trying to get my clownfish to breed

[Yash]

Yeah ... the strip has 3 separate cords, and I have 3 timers, so I should be able to tweak each one by itself. So, having the lights on for an average of 8-10 hours doesn't hurt by way of promoting algae growth?? I thought I read somewhere that too much light could cause an algae bloom, but I wasn't sure what that "too much" equated to?

Thanks!
Yash

[Fishieness]

you will experience an algae bloom just by upgrading most likely. but with time it will go away

[Tommy Gun]

I think that the algea problem seems to be the tradeoff people who want to keep a reef tank make by having higher lighting systems. From my understanding, most 'medium light corals can be kept in a tank that has 2 to 3 watts of lighting per gallon. I use the same system as fishieness with the 14 hours of actynic lights and 10 hours of both lights on by using two timers. I dont have the moonlights, but really want to get some, probrably early next year when I am done buying christmas presents!

The good thing about a lot of 'reef safe' fish is that they tend to graze on algea so you can control it by that way. Also, in a reef tank, you are trying to keep nitrates and certain nutrients out of the water, which also keeps algea problems down.

[Yash]

Out of curiosity, how do you calculate the watts per gallon? In the lighting that I bought, there's two bulbs, one the 65 watt daylight bulb and the other 65 watt true actinic bulb. So, if I only have the daylight bulb on, is that simply 65/36 = ~1.81 watts per gallon? If so, how about when I have both on? Is that counted as 130/36 = ~3.61 watts per gallon?

If the above is correct, am I a litte low on the watts/gal requirement for even 'medium light' corals when I only have my daylights on?

Sorry about all the questions, but I'm trying to understand how exactly the lighting stuff works. The last thing I want is to add an expensive coral only to have it die off due to lack of light.

As far as the algae goes, I think I understand now that I'll have to expect a little, which might be taken care of by the fish. I'm very particular about my water params ... the NH3 and NO2 have been 0ppm ever since the cycle completed, and my nitrATES were ~15 to start off but I have brought them down now to about 5-10ppm.

Thanks again!
Yash

[Fishieness]

From my understanding, most 'medium light corals can be kept in a tank that has 2 to 3 watts of lighting per gallon.
hey, i know this doesnt have a lot to do with the thread at hand, but i jsut want to throw out there that this depends 100% on the system you are keeping. the type of lighting, the brand, even the water quality, ect.

[Fishieness]

Out of curiosity, how do you calculate the watts per gallon? In the lighting that I bought, there's two bulbs, one the 65 watt daylight bulb and the other 65 watt true actinic bulb. So, if I only have the daylight bulb on, is that simply 65/36 = ~1.81 watts per gallon? If so, how about when I have both on? Is that counted as 130/36 = ~3.61 watts per gallon?
dont worry about watts per gallon. it is an outdated rule with too many variables to even be able to tell anything.
for example, a 150 watt HQI mH with a lumanarc reflector and a bluewave electronic ballast is going to produce a HECK of a lot more PAR than 192 watts of PC no matter how good the manufacturer is.

[Yash]

Ah! I guess I'll just have to try it out and see how my tank does with the lighting in that case eh?

[Tommy Gun]

ok, well i am learning as well so if the watts per gallon guideline is not good, I will be wiser myself now! I brought that up because of a very popular online store that I visit a lot for the information that it posts about its products, uses watts per gallon as the guideline for some of the corals it sells.

In any case, I believe that the blue actynic bulb is in many ways equal to the out put of light that a white light bulb gives out and it is just in a differing spectrum, which is why we see it as blue. I know for a fact though, the blue actynic light can penetrate water deeper than the white light.

[Yash]

Hey Tommy ... that's good to hear that they both give out the same output. That way, I guess having them both of for the peak daytime light cycle will give me ~3.61 watts per gallon, which seems fairly ok.

If this isn't sufficient, I would appreciate it if someone else chimes in :)

Thanks,
Yash

[Fishieness]

In any case, I believe that the blue actynic bulb is in many ways equal to the out put of light that a white light bulb gives out and it is just in a differing spectrum, which is why we see it as blue. I know for a fact though, the blue actynic light can penetrate water deeper than the white light.
they are not equal in output. blue light in theory may penetrate deeper, but the actual bulbs that we use have a lower PAR the lighter the K rating is.
a 10000K bulb on the same ballast, reflector, socket, ect will have more PAR than a 20000K bulb.

but what you have there with the PCs is enough for softies and some lps if kept in the upper half. feedings would also help

[Tommy Gun]

Not to try and hijack this thread, but I figured that Yash may want to know this as much as I do....What is PAR then?

Still, if you have two bulbs, a blue actynic and a whilte light, and both are 10,000K, then they have the same intensity, correct?

What I was really trying to get at is to time the lights so that there is a period of time when all the bulbs are on and not to just shut off the blue ones when the white lights are on.

[Yash]

Tommy - you're not hijacking it at all as long as the questions still pertain to lighting, which yours do. I'll be honest in saying that I don't know much about lighting at all, so the more questions (whether from you or me) answered the better it is :)

Cheers!
Yash

[Fishieness]

Not to try and hijack this thread, but I figured that Yash may want to know this as much as I do....What is PAR then?

Still, if you have two bulbs, a blue actynic and a whilte light, and both are 10,000K, then they have the same intensity, correct?

What I was really trying to get at is to time the lights so that there is a period of time when all the bulbs are on and not to just shut off the blue ones when the white lights are on.
PAR is photosynthetic availible radiation. it is basicly the amount of light availible for your corals to grow. the more PAR, the deeper it can penetrate into the water.
and you wouldnt have two different color bulbs that are the same K. or well, some 10000Ks are yellow, and for MH, it can depend on the brand, but not with PCs. an actinic is a blue actinic and a daylight is a 10000K white bulb.