How much / often light should I be using?

[Anthony8858]

Here's a pic of recently setup SW aquarium.
As you can see, it's rather empty. I DO have some Uncured LR in there.
While I allow the tank to cycle, and the LR to cure......

How much light is critical for the rock to develope into the colorful rock I see in the stores?

This is a 36 gallon bow front, with a 20w colorlife bulb.

 

[OrionGirl]

What are you wanting to grow? Macro-algaes will need more light, sponges don't care (some prefer darker areas), encrusting algaes will be fine in your current setup and most corals will require much more than you currently have. For a 36, I would target having about 150-200 watts per gallon--power compacts being a better choice.

For the photo period--with what you have now, it's no big deal. I'd run the lights on a timer, having them on for about 8 hours. If you upgrade and acquire photo synthetic critters, 10-12 hours is a bit better for them, but 8 hours will still work for many.